CAT men to face NACC over 3G deal with True
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The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) will on May 28 call in some CAT Telecom officials involved in that state agency's 3G deals with True Corp to inform them that they may have broken the law.
An NACC subcommittee concluded yesterday that some laws and regulations had possibly been breached in connection with the deals. But the subcommittee declined to disclose the names of possible offenders.
Methee Klongkaew, chairman of the NACC subcommittee in charge of the probe into the deals, said they may have breached the 1992 Public-Private Joint Venture Act, the 2010 Frequency Allocation Law, and Article 157 of the Criminal Code.
He said the officials in question would have to make their case within 15 days of being informed of the allegations. He added that it was beyond the authority of the subcommittee to judge whether the deals were illegal.
The deals signed by CAT and True’s subsidiaries Real Move and Real Future in January last
year have drawn the scrutiny of many authorities over their legal status.
Under the arrangement, CAT procured network equipment from Real Future’s BFKT (Thailand) to generate third-generation cellular bandwidth for wholesale. CAT wholesaled its 3G bandwidth to Real Move, which provides the wireless broadband service under the TrueMove H brand.
CAT’s chief executive officer at that time was Jirayuth Rungsrithong, while Visuth Srisupan was chairman of the board.
Visuth resigned three months after the deals were signed and before his term ended, citing personal reasons. Jirayuth resigned last December.
The Senate good governance and anti-corruption committee concluded in February that the agreements appeared to infringe relevant laws and regulations, especially the Frequency Allocation Act.
Another committee set up by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry found five irregularities in the making of the deals and forwarded its report to the NACC for inquiry.
The irregularities ranged from what appeared to be a well-designed political plan to pave the way for the deals to the CAT’s bypassing of some state procedures to make the agreements.
True executives have reaffirmed their belief that the deals followed all laws and regulations.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has set up a committee to probe whether the deals violated Article 46(2) of the Frequency Allocation Law, and the panel will hold its second meeting soon.
The law prohibits NBTC licence holders such as CAT and TOT from allowing other parties to manage their spectra on their behalf.
