Financial and Fiscal Discipline Office

Consideration of Financial Discipline Violations of the State.

The Office of the Auditor General has issued regulations regarding the consideration of financial discipline violations of the state, B.E. 2562, which outlines the procedures for considering such violations as follows:

1. Procedure for accepting or rejecting the case for consideration When the Auditor General submits a case to the Office of the Auditor General for administrative punishment against the audited party or state officials, the Office will register the case in the registry and assign staff to examine the case according to criteria in Sections 21, 22, and 23, along with preparing a report to present to the Chairman of the Office of the Auditor General. The Chairman will convene a meeting of the Office to quickly decide whether to accept or reject the case for consideration.

- If the Office decides not to accept the case for consideration, the Office will remove the case from the registry.

- If the Office decides to accept the case for consideration and notifies the charges, one member of the Office will be assigned as the case owner, and at least one official from the Office will be assigned as an assistant to the case owner. The case owner will notify the accused of the charges to provide an opportunity for the accused to clarify and present evidence to prove, confirm, refute, or address the charges both in terms of facts and law.

2. Procedure for Notification of Allegations and Explanation to Counter Allegations.The notification of allegations must be made in writing according to the format prescribed by the State Audit Commission, specifying the facts and circumstances that warrant administrative punishment along with copies of relevant evidence sufficient to enable the accused to understand the allegations. The accused must also be informed of the following matters:

- The resolution to appoint the committee chair and the assistant committee chair (Clause 26, paragraph three).

- The right to object to the chair of the State Audit Commission, the members of the State Audit Commission, the committee chair, and the assistant committee chair (Clause 17).

- The right to have a lawyer or advisor present to listen to their statements or verbal presentations (Clause 9, paragraph two).

- The right to inspect, know, copy, or request certified copies of documents or evidence submitted to the State Audit Commission or the committee chair by the Governor of the State Audit Commission or the accused (Clause 15, paragraph one).

- The right to verbally explain to the State Audit Commission (Clause 39).

The accused must submit a written explanation to counter the allegations along with evidence (if any) to the committee chair within 30 days from the date of receipt or deemed receipt of the notification of allegations, unless in the following cases:

- In cases where there are reasons and necessities that prevent the submission of a written explanation within the specified period, the accused may file a request for an extension of time to the committee chair before the deadline for the explanation. The committee chair may grant an extension of the explanation period for no more than 15 days and must inform the accused of the order.

- In the case of a request for an extension of more than 15 days for the sake of justice, it shall be submitted to the Chairman of the State Audit Commission for consideration at the meeting of the State Audit Commission to issue an order to extend the period as necessary. However, a request must be made before the deadline for the explanation of the allegations expires.

- This is a matter that occurred more than 5 years from the date of the offense or

When the deadline for submitting the explanation of the allegations has passed, if the accused does not submit an explanation to refute the allegations, it shall be deemed that the accused is aware of the allegations and does not wish to explain or refute the allegations.

3. The process of gathering facts and evidence When the accused has explained the allegations or when the deadline for the explanation has expired and the committee in charge has deemed it necessary to gather additional facts and evidence to prove the facts, they shall proceed to request the audit unit, the accused, the Auditor General, or officials assigned by the Auditor General to investigate, witnesses, or expert witnesses to provide written explanations or submit related documents or other evidence, or to give opinions, or to come and testify, or they may go to inspect the location.

In gathering facts and evidence, if it appears that the Auditor General or the accused was previously unaware of the facts or evidence, the committee in charge shall summarize the facts or evidence and notify the Auditor General or the accused to provide an opportunity to explain or present evidence to confirm or refute.

4. The process of hearing evidence and preparing reports by the committee in charge When the board member in charge has notified the allegations and listened to the defense statements regarding the allegations, as well as gathered the facts and evidence, the board member will prepare a report summarizing the facts, legal issues, and opinions to be submitted to the State Audit Commission within 30 days for consideration. The board member has the discretion to take into account the evidence presented during the deliberation, not limited to that proposed by the Auditor General or the accused.

5. Procedure for Administrative Sanction Consideration When the chairman of the State Audit Commission receives the report from the board member in charge along with the case file, a meeting of the State Audit Commission will be called to consider the case within 15 days from the date of receiving the report and case file. Before making a decision on the administrative sanction, the State Audit Commission has the authority to gather additional facts or evidence for the sake of justice. If any accused person wishes to make an oral statement to the State Audit Commission, the Commission will provide an opportunity for that accused person to make an oral statement as necessary for the sake of justice.

On the day of the meeting for consideration, the board member in charge will summarize the facts, the issues of the allegations, the legal matters, and opinions to the State Audit Commission. In considering the financial disciplinary offenses and the administrative sanctions, the State Audit Commission will primarily use the audit report from the Auditor General and consider the facts from the case file, the report from the board member in charge, as well as the relevant legal provisions.

- In the case where the State Audit Commission considers and finds that the facts and evidence are insufficient to substantiate the allegations of wrongdoing, a ruling shall be made to dismiss the case.

- In the case where the State Audit Commission considers and finds that there has been wrongdoing according to the allegations, a ruling shall be made to impose administrative penalties on the accused party who committed the offense.

When the State Audit Commission has prepared its ruling State Audit Office of the Kingdom of Thailand will notify the accused and the relevant agency, or the supervisor or regulatory authority, for acknowledgment or enforcement in accordance with the ruling, as the case may be.

Administrative penalties and enforcement of the ruling.

The Organic Act on State Audit B.E. 2561, Section 98, paragraph one, stipulates that administrative penalties are as follows: (1) reprimand (2) public censure (3) administrative fine, and Section 98, last paragraph, states that in considering administrative penalties, the State Audit Commission shall take into account the severity of the misconduct and the damage caused by such actions. The enforcement of penalties according to the ruling is specified in the regulations of the State Audit Commission regarding the consideration of financial discipline violations of the state B.E. 2562 as follows.

1. Reprimand According to the regulations of the State Audit Commission regarding the consideration of financial discipline violations of the state B.E. 2562, Section 47 stipulates that "the reprimand penalty shall be notified to the punished party promptly." This penalty is of the same type as the disciplinary penalties specified in the Civil Service Act B.E. 2551.

2. Public Reprimand According to the regulations of the Office of the Auditor General regarding the consideration of financial disciplinary violations of the state, B.E. 2562, Section 48 states that “A public reprimand shall be communicated to the punished party, and the decision shall be published in the information technology system of the Office of the Auditor General within the timeframe specified by the Office of the Auditor General in the decision.”

3. Administrative Fines According to the regulations of the State Audit Commission regarding the consideration and judgment of financial discipline violations of the state, B.E. 2562, Article 49, paragraph one states that “the imposition of administrative fines requires the office to notify the person being fined of the judgment, and the fined person must pay the fine to the office according to the judgment.” Paragraph two states that “if the payment of the fine is not made correctly and completely by the due date, the office shall issue a written warning to the fined person to pay the fine within the specified period, which must be no less than seven working days. If there is no compliance with the warning, the committee may apply the law on administrative procedure by analogy.” Given the nature of enforcement according to the aforementioned judgment, it will directly impact the assets of the fined person. To prevent the amount of the fine from being excessively high, a framework for imposing administrative fines has been established in the Organic Act on State Audit, B.E. 2561, Article 98, paragraph two, which states that “in imposing administrative fines, the fine shall not exceed twelve months' salary of the fined person.” The administrative fines received by the Office of the State Audit will be remitted as state revenue and reported to the State Audit Commission each time, as per the last paragraph of Article 49 of the regulations of the State Audit Commission regarding the consideration and judgment of financial discipline violations of the state, B.E. 2562.

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