I woke up this morning and found news of a government scandal over on Bangkok Pundit’s blog. A quick hop over to Nation confirms it:

Two members of the Surayud Cabinet have offered to quit after it was found they held stakes in companies in excess of the 5 per cent allowed under the graft law of 2000.

NCCC spokesman Klanarong Chantik named the two ready to resign as Deputy Commerce Minister Oranuj Osathananda and Information and Communication Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookai-yaudom. The third is Interior Minister Aree Wongsearaya.

It looks like ICT Minister Sitthichai is finally on his way out. Both Sitthichai and Oranuj were kind of thrown into politics, so I’m not surprised that at least these two were caught out owning shares. It just seems like a technicality though. They owned the shares before they took their positions, right? I assume that to avoid this situation, all they would have had to do is transfer the shares under someone else’s name.

Either way, they both have their excuses. Sitthichai went on record saying that he had declared his shares since he took office; Oranuj pleaded ignorance.

Another technicality is that the two minister can’t actually be brought to justice because there is nothing in the Interim Constitution about this matter, and the 2007 Constitution exempts interim ministers from assets declaration laws. Crafty.