The AOT board resolved to nullify the two concessions on technical grounds, after the Council of State, the government's legal advisory body, ruled that King Power had intentionally skirted the Public-Private Joint Venture Act through deception, an allegation the company denies. The Council of State said King Power deliberately under-declared the value of the investment in each of the two contracts as being below Bt1 billion to avoid the greater scrutiny that would otherwise have been applied.

In reality, the value of each of the contracts was well over Bt1 billion - a level that requires stricter screening. As a consequence of King Power's unlawful move, it required only the previous AOT board's approval to seal the contracts. In other words, if King Power had declared the actual value of investment in each of the contracts, it would have been forced to offer more favourable profit-sharing terms to the AOT.

It must be said that King Power was awarded the contracts at the new airport under dubious circumstances. There were allegations that huge bribes had been offered and taken, but no evidence was found to back these claims, which were categorically rejected by both King Power and the previous AOT board.

It is a well known fact that politicians at the Transport Ministry and top officers in the Air Force have always had tremendous influence over AOT, which has been known as a "twilight zone" because of the general lack of transparency in the way it conducts business. The previous board was dominated by politicians and Air Force officers who were closely associated with deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. A different group of military officers holds sway over the current board.

The new AOT board seems to have done the right thing when it decided on Thursday to open competitive bidding to find several duty-free operators to open shops at Suvarnabhumi Airport. The reason given was that consumers would benefit from the competition and AOT could receive better profit-sharing terms if more than one operator was awarded contracts to operate duty-free shops. King Power will be allowed to participate in the new bidding.

But the present board also said it wanted all retail-space tenants at Suvarnabhumi - who were under the lease agreement with King Power - to individually seek new leases directly from AOT. The board did not explain why it did not want to open competitive bidding to find a private real estate company to handle the management of commercial areas at the airport. After all, AOT cannot possibly have the same expertise in running the operations as smoothly and as efficiently as a well qualified private real-estate company.

This decision smacks of dubious motives. It may well be true that by getting tenants to enter into lease agreements with AOT directly would enable the airport operator to earn maximum revenue. But it also provides unscrupulous politicians and military officers who wield influence over AOT, now or in the future, the opportunity to engage in corruption.

The current AOT board has a duty to prove beyond reasonable doubt that its termination of King Power's contracts was motivated by neither politics nor the personal gain of politicians and military officers who currently wield tremendous power.

What the board should be doing is putting its own house in order by ridding all areas of its operations of corrupt elements. It cannot be emphasised enough that the board will have its hands full. There are areas of its operations that continue to be shrouded in corruption, including contracts made with private companies to run car-parking and other facilities. Failure by the current AOT board to clean up these murky dealings would leave it open to charges of gross hypocrisy.