Deposed premier Thaksin Shinawa-tra is believed to have been involved in two fraudulent cases involving a controversial land plot purchase by his wife and the new airport's bomb-detection scanners, the spokesman for the Assets Examination Committee (AEC) said yesterday.

Sak Korsaengruang said the AEC's panel found that Thaksin had violated Article 100 of the National Counter Corruption Act over the 2003 land purchase which Thaksin's wife Pojaman made at an auction by the Bank of Thailand's Financial Institutions Development Fund.

The provision prohibits government officials - including prime ministers - and their spouses from entering into or having interests in contracts made with state agencies under their authorisation.

Under the condition, Thaksin as prime minister had violated the law as he had authorised the Fund, Sak said.

However, Pojaman was not found guilty under this context as she had not been a government official, he said. She had only supported Thaksin to con-duct the wrongdoing, he added.

The next step was for the Fund to submit an appeal to the AEC to launch legal action against Thaksin, Sak said.

Thaksin is among 22 individuals accused of violating the Criminal Code's Articles 157 and 83 for having struck the new bag-gage-handling system contract and approved the Airports of Thailand's (AOT) contract to buy the 26 bomb scanners directly from US-based scanner maker GE InVision Inc.

Aside from Thaksin, former transport minister Suriya Jung-rungreangkit is among the accused.

On the first count, the AEC cited that the AOT, which comes under the Transport Ministry, mischievously struck the baggage-handling deal with ITO Joint Venture, though the system had already been designed by the MJTA group of consultants.

The AOT also hired Quatrotec Inc as the design inspector, though the company was only set up shortly before being awarded the deal. The individuals were also accused of allowing ITO to quote a huge profit.

While the original contract said ITO would receive Bt3.997 billion from the installation of the system, ITO agreed to pay its sub-contractor Kawasaki Heavy Industries only Bt3.094 billion, resulting in a Bt902 million differential. The AEC also accused ITO of overcharging AOT for the CTX 9000 DSi scanners and accessories.

On the second count, the AEC said the AOT struck a contract to buy the bomb scanners directly from GE InVision, apparently to help ITO and its sub-contractor Patriot Business Consultants.

Moreover, the purchase price was quoted in an aggregate sum of US$35 million (Bt1.2 billion), leading the AEC to believe the AOT wanted to hide how much each of the scanners actually cost and that the AOT could be overcharged for the scanners.

"As Thaksin and Suriya maintained the political posts when the malfeasance occurred, we need the AOT and Transport Ministry to file complaints to the AEC so that we can bring the case to the next level," Sak said.

Ahead of the announcement yesterday at 8am, the AEC dispatched a group of 10 officers to Suvarnabhumi Airport, where the AOT office is located, to take documents related to the CTX scanner purchase, the electrical pipe project and the Airport Rail Link projects.

Thirteen large boxes of document were gathered, involving the procurements and meeting minutes.

Regarding the land transaction, the controversial purchase was made back in 2003 when Pojaman paid Bt772 million for four plots in the Ratchadaphisek Road area,  which were put up for auction by the Bank of Thailand's Financial Institutions Development Fund.

Earlier, Thaksin's chief lawyer Noppadon Pattama insisted the deal had not breached Article 100 because the ex-prime minister did not directly control the Fund.

Budsarakham Sinlapalavan

The Nation