"Experts to help probe Bangkok airport graft"

Friday, October 20, 2006

Experts to help probe airport graft
BY SURASAK GLAHAN
Thailand - The Bangkok Post


Experts are being brought in to investigate three corruption cases involving
the development of Suvarnabhumi airport, assets scrutiny committee chairman
Nam Yimyaem said yesterday. Mr Nam said a working group probing
irregularities in the airport's development came up with lists of experts
yesterday, and the lists would be forwarded to the scrutiny panel for
approval on Tuesday. 

The experts would work on three sub-committees in charge of the corruption
cases, added Mr Nam, who also chairs the working group. Khunying Jaruvan
Maintaka, the auditor-general, Kaewsan Athipothi, secretary-general of the
assets panel, and Amnuay Phantara, another panelist, join him in the group. 

Mr Nam confirmed the procurement of CTX luggage scanners was one case the
sub-committees would probe but he refused to identify the other two. Earlier
reports said these were the Airport Rail link and the electricity
cable-laying project. 

He said a retired bureaucrat had been chosen to chair the sub-panel on the
CTX procurement. Another source said an official from the judiciary had been
asked to assume the post. 

Each sub-committee would comprise five members, four of them outsiders with
a specific area of expertise, and the fifth a member of the panel, he said. 

The sub-committees will decide who to summon for testimony, and how much
evidence is needed before a probe is launched and charges pressed, he added.


Since being appointed to look into actions causing damage to the state, the
11-member panel has started assessing eight large-scale corruption cases. 

The five other cases are the Shin-Corp Temasek deal, a soft loan granted to
the Burmese government by the Export-Import Bank, the procurement of fire
trucks by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, a rubber plantation
scheme and the procurement of laboratory equipment to check the quality of
food exports.

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