A graft-busting agency suspects some state education officials in Nakhon Ratchasima province fabricated over 200 student names to pocket an education subsidy.
"Ghosts students" refers to students who were enrolled in schools, but allegedly failed to show up or attend class. The Office of Anti-Corruption in Public for Area 3 found there are between five and 38 ghost students in these schools, but at Kham Sakae Saeng School in Nakhon Ratchasima's Kham Sakae Saeng district, the number rose to 196, office chief Samart Chainarong said.
"The problem is these students continue to receive subsidies from the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) because the schools have not removed their names," he said.
Obec supports both junior and senior high school students. Students from grades 7 to 9 are given a total of 4,800 baht each -- 3,500 baht for educational help, 850 baht for student quality development, and 450 baht for textbooks -- while those in the upper-secondary level (grades 10 to 12) get higher subsidies at 6,250 baht per head.
Investigators estimated that about one million baht in subsidies to the province was disbursed to 196 ghost students. "We need to know, was the money paid to ghost students? Was it only false claims for subsidies, and who are these false claimants?" Pol Lt Col Samart said.
His office will start its probe at Kham Sakae Saeng School by finding out where the 196 students live and why they did not go to school, he said. The school told Pol Lt Col Samart that the 196 are real students and their grades are listed as getting zero GPA or I (incomplete assignments).
The school claimed the students did not contact teachers to have their scores readjusted or notify the school they were pulling out. As a result, the school cannot just remove their names from the register as they could be in breach of the law.
However, when his office asked the school to send it details of the 196 students, it was reluctant, arguing it first needs to update the numbers, Pol Lt Col Samart said. The investigation would take another one month and the findings will be sent to the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission for further action.