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Published on January 10, 2008

The AOT executive board also decided to sell AOT's stake in Thai Airports Ground Ser-vices (TAGS), which handles ground services at the airport.

It will also examine a contract that employs TAGS to manage the airport's duty-free zone, to see whether it is paying too much.

AOT pays TAGS Bt21 million a year to manage the zone, based on a 16.5-per-cent management charge.

The board views the payment as unfair and is ordering AOT to sell its 18-per-cent stake in TAGS to create transparency after an examination of the contract is carried out.

The board's decision on King Power came after its instruction to the company to remove its shops in March last year appears to have been ignored.

King Power's failure to comply prompted AOT's board on Tuesday to engage lawyers to take action against it.

The board also yesterday ordered King Power Suvarnabhumi, a subsidiary of King power, to remove its tenants at the airport. The subsidiary manages commercial space at the airport.

The firm, which sublets space, was told that the concessions granted in March 2006 by the former AOT board had violated the Public-Private Joint Venture Act.

This omission was deemed as sufficient reason to withdraw the concessions.

The board said some key information had not been disclosed when the concession was granted by the former board.

The current board has

asked the National Counter Corruption Commission to investigate whether there are any officials or people involved in the failure to disclose this information, as required under the Public-Private Joint Venture Act.

The commission has been asked to take disciplinary action and file civil cases against people who violated the act.

The concession was granted during the Thai Rak Thai-led government two years ago.

Yesterday's legal move by the AOT came as a surprise. It was expected that the board would leave the matter to the new government to tackle.

Some industry sources had expected the issue would be settled out-of-court as the People Power Party, consisting of ex-Thai Rak Thai Party members, is expected to play a key role in the new government.

Chirmsak, however, said it had decided to take legal action fearing the statute of limitations would render the case void when it ends this March, one year after the board's order to oust the company from the airport was issued.

Earlier on, King Power filed a counter-lawsuit against the AOT board, seeking damages worth Bt68 billion for withdrawing its concessions.

The AOT board took the latest move after recommendations were made by a fact-finding committee led by former senator Prathin Santiprapob.

 Watcharapong Thongrung

 The Nation