UPDATE: Nirat accepts transfer, denies role in Phuket feud

Phuket Governor Nirat Pongsitthaworn said he accepted the cabinet decision transferring him to the post of deputy permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, saying he respected the decision by the prime minister, Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Interior Ministry permanent secretary Arsit Sampantharat and would continue serving wherever he was assigned.

Speaking in his first interview after the transfer order, Nirat said he was not discouraged and would continue to do his best in his duties. He said he had acknowledged the decision and wanted to speak first with Anutin.

The cabinet approved Nirat’s transfer after 210 days in office. His removal came one day after Phuket vice governors Adul Chuthong and Teeraphong Chuaychoo were transferred out of the province. The latest reshuffle means at least eight senior Phuket officials have been removed or transferred since May.

Nirat said he had no personal conflict with anyone in Phuket and rejected suggestions he had become involved in factional disputes within the provincial administration. He said he had been sent there to address disputes that predated his tenure and that his role as governor was to resolve problems rather than align with any faction.

He said not everyone had accepted his efforts and added that if his inability to fully resolve the conflict had led to his transfer, he accepted that outcome.

Nirat said progress had been made on several issues in Phuket and that he had traveled to report the local situation to the prime minister. According to Nirat, action against foreign mafia groups had calmed that problem. He said many things had progressed significantly and that foreign mafia activity had been brought under control, but conflict among local officials remained unresolved and had become a matter at ministry level.

He also called for a broad inquiry, saying the Interior Ministry should appoint a committee led by an official at deputy permanent secretary level with authority to summon all departments involved so agencies under the ministry could examine the situation within their powers.

Asked whether transferring the governor and deputy governors would ease tensions, Nirat said the conflict should be separated into two parts: disputes over benefits in the area, which current authorities must address, and personal or administrative conflicts at local level, which could subside once the people at the center of the dispute had been moved.

He rejected suggestions that he had been treated as a junior official in Phuket, saying he was a Level 10 official and among the most senior provincial governors in Thailand. He said his duty was to guide and protect civil servants under his authority and that he had repeatedly warned officials not to do anything illegal, not to seek bribes and not to abuse their authority or pressure others.

Asked whether those warnings had angered some officials and contributed to the dispute, Nirat replied: “Of course.”

Anutin said after Tuesday’s cabinet meeting that the government needed officials in Phuket who could work together without conflict. Arsit later said the reshuffle was necessary to remove obstacles preventing effective administration and confirmed that investigations into allegations involving senior Phuket officials would continue despite the transfers.

Nirat’s successor, Chotinrin Kerdsom, is expected to take office once his appointment receives royal endorsement.