Council of State did not scrutinise Cabinet nominees’ backgrounds

The Council of State just considered legal points related to the backgrounds of certain Cabinet members without knowing who they were, its secretary-general said on Tuesday.

Pakorn Nilprapunt, the Office of the Council of State’s secretary-general, said the Cabinet Secretariat simply raised 10 questions about possible legal issues of certain nominees for posts in the next Cabinet for the government’s legal advisory board to consider. He added that the answers had now been sent back to the Cabinet Secretariat.

“The Cabinet Secretariat did not ask for scrutiny of backgrounds of particular nominees and we didn’t see the list of Cabinet nominees,” Pakorn said.

“We considered only the questions raised without going into details.”
Pakorn said he could not remember the details but mentioned the 10 points that were raised for the Council of State to ponder.

For example, he said, the Council of State was asked whether certain nominees should be regarded as having breached the ethical standards after complaints were made against them with the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The Council of State replied that since they have not been summoned to testify, the NACC could not resolve to indict them and they must be considered innocent so far.

Pakorn added that it would not be fair to the nominees to jump to the conclusion that they had done wrong simply because a complaint had been lodged with the NACC.