(Text/Observer Network Liu Chenghui)
A civil service examination was involved, and the scores of nearly 6,000 candidates were tampered with. Some candidates could spend hundreds of thousands of Thai baht to “correct” incorrect answers into correct ones, and even secure their positions as civil servants. There were also candidates who only realized after the re-ranking that they had jumped from 132nd place to 1st place.
As investigations continue to deepen, the Thai civil service examination bribery case is growing larger by the day.
According to the Thai newspaper 'The Nation', on August 31, the Department of Local Administration Promotion under the Ministry of Interior confirmed that national local governments have revoked the appointments of 3,868 civil servants. Among them, 146 people had resigned voluntarily, but they may still face subsequent accountability measures.
Thai officials conducted a recheck and found that a total of 5925 candidates' scores were manipulated. Among them, 5145 candidates who did not meet the passing standards were "improved" to pass; another 774 candidates who had already passed the exam had their scores artificially increased; also, the scores of 6 more candidates were modified. However, since they did not complete all the exams, they did not make it onto the list of passers.
With the dismissal of the officials, the investigation is not over. The Ministry of Domestic Affairs has handed over relevant information to institutions such as the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Committee, the Anti-Money Laundering Office, the Police Anti-Corruption Department, and the Special Investigations Unit (DSI). These agencies will continue to investigate those involved in manipulating exams, middlemen, and the flow of funds.
On September 2nd, the investigation even reached inside the DSI. Thai Justice Minister Ruttapon Naewarara revealed that DSI is planning to investigate two staff members who are suspected of being involved in the case.
The agency responsible for investigating major cases ended up involving even its own staff in this fraud scandal.
Thai police escorted the suspects in the 2025/2026 local civil service examination fraud case
The scale of this examination is not small. It is an important channel for Thai local governments to recruit civil servants and employees. A total of 438,000 people signed up, and nearly 280,000 actually took the examination.
The exam is divided into three parts. The first two parts mainly assess comprehensive abilities and job-related knowledge. Only those who pass these parts can proceed to the third part, which evaluates job-appropriate abilities. Ultimately, candidates wait in order of their scores and rankings for local governments to hire them.
The breakthrough in fraud initially occurred in a residence in Bang Ae District, Nonthaburi Province.
On June 23rd, Thai police's anti-corruption department, along with the National Anti-Corruption Committee, entered the location with a search warrant. Investigators had been monitoring the location for three consecutive days and noticed unusual movements of people entering and leaving.
During the search, more than ten people were inside the house working on the results of local civil servant exams and information related to the answer sheets. Law enforcement officers also discovered a large number of computers, storage devices, candidate lists, and answer sheets. The initially seized materials involved approximately 3,000 candidates, and the scores of about 2,000 of them had been altered.
As the police disclosed the detention application letter, the specific methods of cheating gradually surfaced.
According to Thai Nation TV, the individuals involved were able to obtain external hard drives containing exam standard answers, test paper images, lists of candidates, and score information.
The group first determines which candidates paid money, then finds the questions that need to be revised based on the standard answers. The operators print blank answer sheets, mark the correct answers by drilling holes, and then compare these with the images of the answer sheets of the candidates who paid money. Red marks are made at the corresponding positions. The processed answer sheets are scanned into image files, saved to the hard drive, and then sent back to the relevant departments. Corresponding score data will also be adjusted accordingly.
The group also established a LINE chat group called “KEYS”, specifically for transmitting answers and score information that need to be modified.
This is not an external hacker attempting to penetrate the examination system. The standard answers, answer sheet images, candidate lists, and score data, which should be strictly controlled, were able to be taken out of the normal examination process, modified in batches outside, and then sent back again.
And all of this has long become a clearly priced business.
At the beginning of the case being exposed, investigators revealed that there were intermediaries who specifically sought candidates with lower scores who might not be able to pass the exams. They claimed that they could help these candidates "guarantee their passing" by paying a fee. For general positions, the price was around 350,000 Thai bahts, and for highly competitive positions, the price could rise to 700,000 to 800,000 Thai bahts.
Some people are looking for “customers” who are willing to pay money. Some obtain test materials, others modify answer sheets and scores, and there are also those responsible for returning the processed documents back to the testing process. The issue has thus evolved from “candidates paying to gain points” into a problem that affects the entire testing organization chain.
An official survey report released in August revealed that the problems are far more than just score adjustments. The investigation committee found that there were flaws, anomalies, or suspected violations in almost every step of the process: from determining the recruitment positions, approving exams, setting bidding conditions, selecting organizations to conduct the exams, organizing exams and grading papers, announcing results, hiring candidates, and even handling situations after fraud syndicates are exposed.
One of the numbers is particularly striking.
The initially approved vacancies for this exam were only 8,548, but the actual number of people employed in these positions reached 15,520, nearly twice the number of positions initially approved.
The investigation report indicates that this situation arose because the Central and Local Personnel Committee previously granted local-level general authorization: thereafter, whenever there are new vacancies, personnel can be appointed from the roster of qualified candidates without the need for further approval from the central authorities.
The investigation committee believes that this practice does not conform to the principle of controlling recruitment based on approved vacancies adopted by general government departments. It has requested the Ministry of Interior to further verify whether the relevant appointments comply with relevant laws and regulations.
Even more unexpectedly, even after the fraud network was exposed, the recruitment process did not stop immediately. According to the investigation report, even after the police captured those suspected of being involved in the fraud, the relevant parties continued to assign positions from the list of candidates who passed the exams.
As the original answer sheets and scores were rechecked, 5925 students whose scores were altered came to light. However, their situations are not exactly the same.
Among them, 5145 people who originally did not meet the qualifying standards were marked as qualified; 774 people who had already passed the exams had their scores artificially increased; and the scores of another 6 people were also altered. Since they did not complete all the exams, these individuals ultimately did not make it onto the list of qualifiers.
Among the 774 candidates who were originally qualified, 561 have been appointed. After re-ranking based on actual scores, 464 individuals whose actual rankings have not yet reached the appointment threshold have had their appointments revoked. Additionally, 97 individuals, even after removing the artificially increased scores, still meet the original appointment criteria in terms of both scores and rankings, and therefore remain in their positions temporarily.
These 97 people have not yet passed the test. The Ministry of Interior of Thailand states that further investigation will be conducted to determine why they were given extra points, and whether they or their relatives were involved in this process. If any behavior of paying to get extra points is confirmed, legal action will be taken.
As of August 31, national local governments have completed the removal procedures for 3,868 individuals. In addition, more than 1,000 related candidates are still waiting to be appointed and will not be given positions based on their previous exceptional performance.
The cheaters were removed, and the candidates who were originally left behind finally started to regain their rankings.
In August, Thailand re-ranked the results of local civil service examinations. A woman who applied for an internal audit position in the first district of the south was originally ranked 132nd, but after the re-ranking, she was directly moved up to the 1st place.
Even more absurd is that her score didn’t change at all.
This examinee received 82 points, 92 points, and 84.33 points in the three parts of the exam. When she first saw the ranking, she thought there were too many “talented people” taking the exam, and she had to accept being ranked 132nd.
After the list was republished, with the same scores, she still became the first.
She later said on social media that she was “so happy that her hands were shaking” when she saw the new rankings. She said that her efforts had finally paid off, and “although it was a bit late, she was very proud of herself.”
There have been many regular candidates who have paid a more substantial price for the cheating exam.
In early July, more than a dozen affected candidates represented over 1,000 people who were taking the exam and went to the National Anti-corruption Commission to submit documents, requesting an accelerated investigation. According to Thai PBS, some people quit their jobs in order to wait for civil service appointments. After the fraud was exposed, the recruitment process was affected, and they not only failed to obtain positions but also lost their previous income.
Now, the wait of some people has finally borne fruit. The Ministry of Interior of Thailand announced that the vacancies left after the cancellation of appointments will be filled based on actual performance and rankings after the appointment process resumes. The next round of appointments is expected to take place as early as October.
But some people are worried that things won’t end with just "changing a group of people in place".
The head of the Thai anti-corruption organization, Manat Nimitmongkoon, warned earlier about this case. He said that if a person starts in the civil service with cheating and trading positions, 'this is the starting point of the failure of the bureaucratic system.' He called for investigations to not only cover candidates and frontline workers, but also to continue tracking the underlying networks that protect such behavior.
The latest investigation is still ongoing upstream.
On August 31, the revocation process for 3,868 individuals was completed. On September 1, the Thai Ministry of Interior asked local authorities to be vigilant against those who were dismissed from their jobs and then entered the local government system as contract workers. On September 2, the DSI announced that it was investigating two staff members within its department.
For those candidates who have taken the exams honestly but were somehow left behind, at least their actual rankings are starting to recover. One of the affected candidates said in an interview with Thai media that what they really want is simple – “to give fairness back to those who truly passed the exams.”
As for how the answer sheets and examination data, which should be kept confidential, ended up being distributed, and who actually sent the corrected scores back to the official list, there are still many questions unanswered regarding who else was involved in this process behind the “civil servant jobs” worth hundreds of thousands of Thai bahts. The investigation in Thailand is not yet complete.
Thai media The420 commented that this incident exposes a serious flaw in the recruitment process within the public sector: once test scores can be manipulated, the credibility of the entire selection process is questioned. For those candidates who did not benefit from fraud and participated in the exams honestly, the impact of this incident is far more than just the dismissal of 3868 people.
