DSI accuses schools of embezzling student loans

DSI accuses schools of embezzling student loans - The Nation

DSI accuses schools of embezzling student loans

Piyanuch Thamnukasetchai
The Nation February 21, 2012 1:00 am
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is preparing to take action against higher-education institutions and staff caught embezzling student loans.

"I will raise the issue at the upcoming meeting of the special case committee," Tharit Pengdit, director-general of the DSI, said yesterday.

The committee would be asked to assign corruption cases related to the Student Loan Fund (SLF) and the Income Contingent Loan (ICL) programmes to the DSI because they caused damage to the public sector, hurt youth's chances for an education, and involved the state budget, he said.

Each year, the government appropriates more than Bt4 billion for the SLF and ICL.

An initial inquiry suggests that 32 state and private colleges as well as universities or their staff might have siphoned money from the loan schemes in 2006 and 2007. "The administrators of these institutions were found encouraging high school students to enrol at their campuses and sign loan applications. Many students later discovered that they owe money to the SLF or ICL even though they have not really furthered their studies at the undergraduate level," Tharit said.

Hundreds of students have refused to repay loans they said they did not really use. Their debts range from Bt80,000-Bt120,000 each. Last year, a local leader in Narathiwat helped students lodge a complaint against a higher-education institution operating in the Central region after it used the students' paperwork to seek loans from the SLF programme.

SLF manager Dr Thada Martin said he did not think corruption involving the ICL or SLF was possible. "Students have to sign loan applications on a yearly basis for the loan money to go to the higher-educational institutions," he said, "The loan money does not go to those institutes automatically."

Student Loan Fund head to cooperate in DSI probe | Bangkok Post: news

Student Loan Fund head to cooperate in DSI probe

• Published: 22/02/2012 at 02:19 AM
• Newspaper section: News

The manager of the Student Loan Fund is willing to cooperate with the Department of Special Investigation's probe into whether 32 universities used students' details to ask for money without their knowledge.

SLF manager Tada Martin said yesterday he wants to know whether the 32 universities forged loan documents to get money for their own use, as has been alleged by the DSI.

According to the DSI, some university staff were suspected of not cancelling the loan applications of students who later chose not to enrol there.

Up to 101 former students from the 32 education institutions complained to the SLF after they were told by Krung Thai Bank, which executed the loans, to repay money they never received.

The loans in question are worth a total of 5.2 million baht. The SLF granted them between 2006 and 2007.

"The complainants insisted they did not study at these universities and suspected the institutions used their names to ask for money," Mr Tada said.

Later, 17 universities repaid 3.2 million baht for the debts of about 70 students.

Most of the universities said they "missed" the names of the students who opted out of studying with them and did not report their eventual resignation from courses to the SLF.

Krung Thai Bank's senior executive vice-president Sriprabha Pringpong said the bank's responsibility under the state-run student loan programme is limited to transferring funds to approved students and collecting the debt as directed by the fund.

Mrs Sriprabha said student loans do not undergo credit analysis by the bank as with other loans, but are approved separately by the SLF.

She added the DSI had yet to seek any information about the programme from the bank.

"Under the conditions of the loan programme, there is no way that the applicants themselves could know that a problem occurred until they received a call from the bank seeking repayment," said one official familiar with the programme.

"As a result, it's only the SLF and the educational institutions themselves that could be complicit in the fraud which has been alleged."

University staff face legal action - The Nation

University staff face legal action

The Nation February 24, 2012 1:00 am

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is set to take criminal action against a number of university staffers who allegedly induced students into signing up for loans from two government funds, which they never received, or even enrolled for.

Although the staffers, of an unspecified university, had returned the money to the funds on behalf of the duped students, the crimes had been committed and they must face criminal action, directorgeneral Tharit Phengdit said yesterday.

The DSI is also looking into similar complaints or occurrences reported at 32 government and private universities, mostly located in Si Sa Ket and Ubon Ratchathani in the Northeast. Complaints were made by 47 students claiming to have been duped but were still required by the funds to repay the loans, which they never received or applied for.

According to the complaints, lecturers and staffers of universities in both provinces had offered loans and studies to students in 2006. They agreed to enrol and sign loan papers, but were never contacted. The students began making complaints to police and both funds after they were required to repay the loans in 2010.

The Krung Thai Bank, which offered the loans through the two funds, is demanding a total of Bt3,721,340 from the 47 students, who were given certain sums by the staffers, and then told they would have to repay the balance to the bank.

The first Bt4.8 billion in loans was offered through the two funds in 2006 to students at 903 colleges and universities. A new offer made a few years later brought the number of students obtaining loans to 315,000.

Fucking DSI always get in a snit when someone works out a way of fiddling cash without paying them off.