K-water to show financial status report
The Bangkok office of Korea Water Resources Corp will ask its parent agency in South Korea to send an official report certifying its current financial status so that it can be shown to the Thai public, following rising concern over its capacity to run two
The financial report is expected to be released to the media and the public in the near future, K-Water managing director Monton Panupokin said at a press conference yesterday, insisting the current financial status of K-water was still good.
“I will ask my president in Korea to send us a financial report of K-water to show members of the Thai public that our financial situation is not in trouble, because most of our income comes from water bills,” he said.
During the past few days, local newspapers have reported that the state-run agency is facing a financial crisis, as its debt has increased to more than 700 per cent of the company’s revenue.
The issue was raised by the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, which had visited the location where K-Water would build a water-retention area in the North of the Kingdom.
According to a report by the federation, K-Water’s debt last year was higher than its capital, at nearly 150 billion won (Bt4 billion) against an estimated 120 billion won.
The report also suggested that K-water had built too many dams and other water works. With South Korea having completed the development of its water resources between 1980 and 1990, the country in now in an oversupply situation in regard to its water facilities, with the operating rate of water works now only 50 per cent, it said. “This report is not true,” Monton said, adding that the civic group had a hidden political agenda and was trying to distort the truth.
A question over K-water’s financial status has also been raised by the Thai opposition party.
Democrat party-list MP Ong-art Klampaiboon yesterday asked Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to scrutinise the financial status of K-Water after learning that the state-run water agency was shouldering debt of more than 700 per cent.
Monton said K-water would release all details related to the two Thai water projects – a flood-diversion channel and a water-retention area – once it signs contracts for the projects.
The company won the bidding for the Bt160-billion contracts under the government’s overall Bt350-billion water- and flood-management programme.
“All details will [then] absolutely be revealed to members of the public,” he added.
