The opposition Democrat Party made the damaging claim on Sunday that the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) have neglected to act on information provided by the US Justice Department and other sources in the bribery scandal relating to the procurement of CTX luggage scanners for Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Answering the charge, the OAG claimed it was aware that the US Justice Department had already replied to its queries regarding the US court case on the bribery scandal but that Attorney-General Pachara Yutithamdamrong had yet to review the response. An OAG spokesman confirmed that it is still carrying out a criminal investigation into alleged corruption in conjunction with the Central Investigation Bureau.

The DSI, by way of explanation, said a government investigation panel assigned it only with the task of finding out who gained financially from the controversial deal - not with investigating corruption by state officials and politicians.

The DSI insisted the scope of its probe, set by the investigation committee, which is chaired by Comptroller-General Boonsak Chiampreecha, focused on following the money trail to determine whether state officials or politicians benefited from the controversial deal. DSI chief General Sombat Amornwiwat said that although his agency found that certain private individuals did gain financially from the deal, there was no indication that state officials or politicians did the same. Sombat said the DSI had submitted its findings to Boonsak's committee and considers its job to be complete.

This clarification given by the OAG and DSI was not very convincing. But a more interesting question is whether the two agencies would have reported any progress in their respective investigations without prodding from the opposition party.

The Democrat Party's Kiat Sittheeamorn said the OAG sought information from the US on June 21 and soon after received documents containing incriminating evidence against executives of GE InVision Technology, maker of the CTX explosives-detecting scanners, as well as Thai entities, including Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT); the ITO Consortium, a main contractor in the construction of the airport; and Patriot Business Consultants, whose status as subcontractor to install the baggage-scanning machines was questionable.

The irregularities in the purchase of the scanners came to light last year after it was found that GE InVision Technologies admitted to the US Justice Department that its representatives might have violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by offering bribes.

The Thaksin government has been ambiguous and elusive whenever questions are raised about the corruption scandal. The administration initially dismissed the bribery allegations out of hand. But when confronted with the evidence from the US Justice Department, it instead blamed GE InVision for damaging Thailand's reputation.

Then-transport minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit, who protested his innocence in the deal, was transferred from his post to that of deputy prime minister following the exposure of irregularities in the deal. It was found that the Thai government could have signed a contract to purchase the machines directly from GE InVision and save Bt800 million in taxpayers' money, but inexplicably it chose to buy through Patriot Business Consultants.

The deal to buy CTX 9000 Dsi machines through Patriot Business Consultants was scrapped and the machines were bought directly from GE InVision Technologies. But the price difference pocketed by Patriot Business Consultants was never recovered.

Kiat said the government must come out and say who pocketed this amount. The Democrat Party executive said DSI investigators had information that Patriot chief executive Worapoj Yasadatt used the money to purchase four rai of land on Rajapruek Golf Course costing Bt80 million, six houses on land costing Bt60 million, Bt50 million worth of trees for his gardens, and nine cars costing Bt26 million. He used Bt200 million for bank guarantees and Bt70 million to pay taxes, while Bt100 million is in bank accounts held by him and his wife, he said.

These dubious transactions were made with a number of people, including former senior judges, businessmen and bank officials.

Kiat is asking all of the questions that OAG and DSI investigators should have been asking all along if they had actually been conducting their duties without fear or favour. The public must keep a close watch on the outcome of this unresolved corruption scandal that the Thaksin government has so far been able to evade, albeit unconvincingly.