The Labour Minister will establish a committee to investigate the Social Security Office's (SSO) purchase of the SKYY9 building after the findings of a special committee indicated it was snapped up for a grossly inflated price.
Labour Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said the new committee will look into the controversial investment as a double check, determine where the process went wrong, identify who is responsible and determine whether disciplinary or legal action is needed.
The move follows the findings of a special committee set up by Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to audit the SSO's budget use. The findings showed the SSO paid roughly double the market value for the property.
Based on the initial findings, the SKYY9 Centre on Rama IX Road was worth only about 3 billion baht at the time of purchase between 2022 and 2023. However, the SSO, which is under the Ministry of Labour, purchased it for 7 billion baht.
Mr Phiphat said the difficult part of this is to find a neutral and credible chairman for the new panel. He stressed that although the investment to purchase the SKYY9 building did not take place during his tenure, his responsibility is to ensure transparency and accountability.
He said that he will discuss the possible suspension of officials who were involved in the process while the investigation is underway with Mr Anutin.
"We must thoroughly investigate any disciplinary violations, especially those linked to potential corruption. For a high-value asset purchase case like this, the SSO must have established a clear process for it, so it should not be difficult to uncover the facts," he said.
However, he said the new investigation is likely to take longer than the initial fact-finding inquiry because a decision to take disciplinary actions must be made with the utmost care and fairness.
Meanwhile, opposition People's Party (PP) MPs Rukchanok Srinork and Sahaswat Khoomkhong on Friday lodged a petition with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) requesting a probe into the building purchase.
Named in the petition were Deputy Commerce Minister Suchart Chomkli, labour permanent secretary Boonsong Thapchaiyut, and former permanent secretary for labour Boonchob Suthamanuswong.
At the time the building purchase deal was made, Mr Suchart served as labour minister, while Mr Boonsong was the secretary-general of the SSO, and Mr Boonchob was the SSO's board chairman.
