No payment suspension as injunction refused
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration yesterday failed to secure an injunction for its plan to suspend further payments to the Austrian supplier at the centre of a fire-truck scandal.
The Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court said the BMA had not presented adequate evidence to warrant an injunction.
"There is no solid proof that there is something wrong with the issuance of the letter of credit [L/C]," the court said. "As of now, there is also no final ruling to convict the supplier [the beneficiary in the L/C] of corrupt practice."
The court added that a suspension of the L/C, if granted, could seriously damage the issuing bank and its clients.
Had the court issued the injunction, the L/C issued by Krung Thai Bank at the request of the BMA would have been suspended.
Under the L/C for the Bt6.68-billion deal, the BMA has already paid Bt4 billion to Austria's Steyr Daimler Puch, the maker of |the fire trucks in the controversial deal.
The BMA must also pay four more instalments to the company, with the next Bt780 million due on Monday.
The BMA has been seeking a way to annul the purchase contract after the National Anti-Corruption Commission's (NACC) suggestion that it is mired in corruption.
Under the deal, the fire trucks are being sold to the authority at a highly inflated rate, it said.
After hearing the court's decision yesterday, Nikom Boonpitak of the BMA Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Division said he would consult BMA executives about the next move.
"We will decide later whether to appeal the court's decision," he said.
The Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court is scheduled to start looking into the BMA request that Steyr Daimler Puch should return Bt3.9 billion plus interest of 7.5 per cent a year on February 22 next year.
-- The Nation 2009-08-08
