The Nation
Some corruption blatant, senior investigator says; meatball seller given contract to build local road
BANGKOK: -- More than 7,000 projects designed to alleviate disasters throughout the Kingdom handled by local administrative bodies were found to be plagued by corruption, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has said.
Thanin Prempree, a deputy commander for special investigations Unit 2 at the DSI, said it was not difficult to uncover the irregularities as some cases were obvious and blatant. In one example, a meatball seller was awarded a contract to build a local road.
In some cases, competing auctioneers were kept out of the loop when landlines to the auction were cut and they could not lodge a bid in time.
In another case, relief bags were allegedly requested for areas not affected by natural disaster. And in yet another, a paper producing company was handed a contract to produce non-paper relief bags.
Thanin said one reason people could engage in such graft was because the auctioning or ordering process was not supervised by the Prime Minister's Office, which has a system of regulations. A change has now been initiated by the Central Budget Bureau.
Thanin said projects with less than a Bt20-million budget were most problematic, as they could be easily manipulated.
He suggested that the Bt50-million emergency budget allocated to each province be closely monitored as it could lead to more corruption and repetitive use of the budget by the province, as well as local administrative organisations.
Three groups cited as being heavily involved in the corruption include politicians, government officials and businessmen.
Meanwhile, the National Anti-Corruption Commission has expressed concern about the Bt350-billion worth of water management projects that are coming up. Vicha Mahakhun, an NACC commissioner, urged the public to be vigilant and asked anyone who notices any irregularity to report it to the commission.
The NACC has made recommendations to Cabinet, but it has the right to take them up or ignore them. Some suggestions include setting a median price for goods and services to be ordered and making it publicly available, as well as allowing the public to scrutinise it.
The commission also said it has the power to temporarily halt any suspicious activities and examine all related information.
-- The Nation 2012-08-07
