AEC promises early end to investigations
Corruption investigations into the central food laboratory, the excise duty on telecommunications and the Ua Athorn housing scheme will be wrapped up before September, Assets Examination Committee (AEC) chairman Nam Yimyaem said yesterday.
Reacting to concerns voiced by AEC spokesman Sak Korsaengreung that many of the graft investigations would not be completed in time, Nam said he was confident these three cases would be forwarded to public prosecutors before the AEC's term ends in September. The first success in the 13 cases the AEC is looking into came last month with the filing of charges in court against Khunying Pojaman Shinawatra and others for allegedly dodging tax on transactions of Shinawatra Computer and Telecommunications shares. Nam said the main reason for the slowness of the AEC investigation was the reluctance of state agencies to lodge complaints against politicians for fear they too would be affected as they were also involved. In cases such as the central lab project, there were hundreds of cheques issued to different people and investigators had to trace them and their involvement with the project, he said. The AEC will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to accept additional cases for investigation, including one lodged by National Legislative Assembly transport committee chairman Admiral Banawit Kengrien, who revealed in February that he had uncovered fresh evidence of irregularities relating to air-conditioning and power-transmission contracts for Suvarnabhumi Airport. Nam said Banawit's case had only background information and the AEC would have to "start from scratch'' to get evidence. The central lab project, conceived to control the quality of food exports, was launched by then agriculture and cooperatives minister Newin Chidchob in 2003. The drafting of the contract terms has been found to favour certain bidders. The excise duty on telecom businesses, imposed after a Cabinet resolution in 2003, is said to have caused financial damage to TOT and CAT Telecom. Critics say the policy deprived the two state telecom agencies of huge revenues and weakened their competitiveness. In the Ua Athorn case, the AEC is investigating Thai-Malaysian joint venture Pastina Thai, which is accused of benefiting from bid rigging. The company is believed to be linked to former social development and human security minister Watana Muangsook.
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