The Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF), an arm of the Bank of Thailand, said it did not report its loss from a land sale on Ratchadaphisek Road in a report to the Assets Examination Committee (AEC) because the AEC subcommittee had not informed the fund about the amount of the loss.

Chanchai Boonritchaisri, a senior director of the central bank's Legal and Litigation Department, said the fund could not figure out whether it had suffered any loss from the sale, because it had sold the land plot at a price higher than the appraisal price. Hence, it could cite the damage figure in the report only when it was informed of the figure by the AEC.

"The FIDF could not see where the loss occurred, but I didn't say there was no loss," he said.

Chanchai said other organisations might calculate appraisal prices differently than did the fund. The committee could inform the fund which standard the price should be referred to.

"We're ready to follow the AEC, but the committee will have to prove the loss in the court, because the fund will only report facts. I do not know whether the court will agree with the committee," he said.

The fund sold the land plot located at Rama IX Road to deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra's wife Pojaman for Bt772 million in 2003, higher than the appraisal price of about Bt700 million.

The AEC claims the fund lost money in the deal, because it had bought the land from Erawan Trust Finance and Securities for Bt2 billion in 1995.

An FIDF source said the fund had paid such a high price for the land plot so as to strengthen the company, which was facing liquidity problems. It was the cheapest way to keep the company afloat at the time. In addition, the market price at the time was high in keeping with a boom in the property sector.

Chanchai said the fund willingly gave a free hand to the AEC and would not give a dissenting opinion in order to avoid conflict.

On January 8, the AEC submitted its report to the Finance Ministry, which passed it on to the FIDF on January 10. The FIDF board convened on January 15 and sent back the report to file a complaint against the ousted premier and his wife.

On the complaint by FIDF lodged on January 16, the agency indicated that Thaksin and his wife had violated Article 100 of the Anti-Corruption Act and committed other criminal offences.

Meanwhile, Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyau-dom yesterday complained to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont during the Cabinet meeting that the AEC had threatened to press charges for dereliction of duty for not cooperating with it.

He said the AEC had threatened to use Article 157 for not lodging a complaint against suspects that the AEC found were involved in corruption cases it was investigating.

Sitthichai said several ministers did not understand the legal process and feared that if they named suspects in the complaints that they lodged, they might face defamation cases if the suspects were proved innocent.

"If we name anyone, won't they be defamed? We're not legal experts. We want someone to tell us what to do. The AEC has only eight months left in office," he said.

He revealed that in his ministry, there was corruption at the policy level that cost the state billions of baht, but officials could not bring corrupt ministers to justice, because permanent officials who followed the orders of ministers would also be held responsible.

Justice Minister Charnchai Likhitjittha said there was no need to name suspects in the process of lodging a complaint. Surayud said he would reach an understanding with the AEC on the matter.

Anoma Srisukkasem

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation