We have blamed politicians, civil servants and contractors, who form an axis of corruption and misdeeds in the multibillion-baht airport project, but have yet to question the role of highly paid "consultants" and the scope of their responsibility.

We have seen that the transparent roof of the airport structure is highly unsuitable for a country like Thailand, which has to bear the brunt of hot sunshine throughout the year. Some airports in the Middle East have used similar materials, but certainly not similar quality and qualifications.

We should ask how the designers, consultants and those who were in charge right from the beginning could have approved such transparent roofing. What was the real purpose or hidden motive for choosing such a roof?

Was nobody involved wise enough to point out then that the heat would be close to unbearable and the air-conditioning system would be inadequate - which has been proven now through the suffering of passengers and all the people working at Suvarnabhumi?

Alas! If the airport continues to be in service in April, the hottest month of the year, we should find out whether the temperature inside the terminal is suitable for humans and those who pay money and expect comfort in return.

It would be interesting to know who came up with the idea that toilets would not be of much need for weary passengers, especially those on long flights and who did not want to queue up in the economy section before landing.

Now we have learned enough - that there were instructions to scrap planned toilets at various points to provide more space for duty-free areas - for Suvarnabhumi to deserve the sarcasm that it is actually a department store with air services, not the other way around.

With all these flaws and wrongdoing to facilitate massive corruption, where were all those engineering and other consultants with princely salaries and fees? Why did they not advise the project owners and their employers that the transparent roof would be bad, and that the extreme scarcity of toilets would be a disaster for Suvarnabhumi?

Was it not the duty and professional responsibility of the consultants to use their knowledge and skills to ensure the efficient functioning and operation of the airport after supervising all stages of construction work and the quality of materials?

Did their professional integrity not require them to advise the project owners whenever anything was found to be improper or substandard that could be harmful when the airport becomes operational?

We have found out, with much shock and disbelief, that almost everything is wrong with the airport - cracks on the runways and taxiways as well as a wide range of other deficiencies throughout the entire project, including many parts of work not yet approved by various committees.

With the whole world laughing at the misdeeds and defects exposed and our tolerance towards corruption by politicians and their partners in crime, we now have to bear acute embarrassment and the cost of an expensive lesson.

Where are all the high-priced consultants?

It's time for all the investigation committees to shift their attention to the consulting firms involved in the project. With fees ranging from 3-5 per cent of the project cost, they do not deserve what they have been charging for their poor service, not to mention the damage to the entire project.

We have to take the contractors, engineers and all consultants to task and ask them to explain their roles. Then we can hear their tales of woe as to whether those defects were done with their full knowledge or oversight, or whether they were under pressure to ignore all the instances of malpractice.

Thai construction contractors and engineers should find out soon enough that their competence and integrity are in grave doubt due to the poor performance of their fellow professionals at Suvarnabhumi.

It will also be difficult to obtain soft loans from foreign governments or international agencies now that corruption and abuse of professional integrity is known to be so blatant. It's time to ensure that all the heads with ideas for misdeeds at Suvarnabhumi must roll.

Sopon Onkgara