A total of 42 highway police officers have been transferred to inactive posts at the operations centre of the Highways Police Division, pending the outcome of an investigation into their alleged involvement in the overloaded truck bribery scandal.
Pol Maj-Gen Jaroonkiat Pankeaw, in his capacity as acting commander of the Highways Police Division, signed the immediate transfer order today (Friday).
Among those transferred are deputy superintendents, deputy inspectors and several non-commissioned officers.
Jaroonkiat said that the counter corruption department will investigate whether there are higher-ranking officers involved.
In the scandal, operators who overload their trucks would be issued with special stickers, indicating that a bribe had been paid and which were recognised by highway police, who would then allow their overweight trucks to run on the country’s highways without being stopped and checked for weight.
Trucks which are not overloaded, because their owners refuse to pay the bribes, are often stopped for weighing by highway police, causing loss of time and appointment delays, in an effort to persuade them to pay the kickbacks.
