DSI to probe compensation paid to MCOT
Play
The Bt405-million compensation paid to MCOT by Bangkok Entertainment Co (BEC) in 2011 has become a heated issue again after the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) yesterday said it intended to investigate the matter.
The move came after Thanadej Puangpool, a lawyer and president of Lawyers to Protect the Interests of the State organisation, sought a DSI probe into the extension for another 10 years of BEC’s concession contract with MCOT to run ThaiTV3, a terrestrial television station.
Thanadej is a former lawyer of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thanadej claimed that MCOT’s board, led by former chairman Surapol Nitikraipote, had resolved to accept Bt405 million compensation to avoid terminating its 20-year broadcasting concession contract with BEC and start a new contract under the Public-Private Joint Venture Act.
This decision had caused the state a loss of Bt7 billion, Thanadej said.
Under the Public-Private Joint Venture Act, if the value of a public project or contract with a private company was more than Bt1 billion, the contract must comply with this law. MCOT’s annual revenue from the concession contract with BEC is already above that threshold and hence the state media agency is required to comply with the law, he said.
However, MCOT’s chief financial officer Jessada Promjart said the compensation was not linked to the extension of the concession contract. MCOT could do nothing about the concession, which the latest amendment had extended for almost 10 years, he said.
In fact, MCOT had provided the broadcast concession to BEC for 40 years. The second extension for 20 years had ended on March 25, 2010, and was automatically extended for another 10 years, Jessada added.
Under the terms of the present concession amendment, agreed on May 2, 1989, and approved by the Cabinet at that time, payment for the concession was changed from 6.5 per cent of gross revenue each year to a fixed fee of Bt1.205 billion for the entire 20-year period.
The fee was then divided into 20 annual payments to MCOT.
The extra Bt405-million payment will be made by BEC on the condition that MCOT does not change the concession terms.
Jessada said that if MCOT had terminated its contract with BEC in the last two years, it might have faced legal action from its partner.
