NACC urged to target Kittiratt, senior official over loan deals
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A leading activist yesterday called on the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to take action against the finance minister and a top official at the ministry for signing term-loan contracts related to the Bt350-billion water-management modules.
The contracts were inked to finance the implementation of the modules that according to the Central Administrative Court’s recent ruling must be put on hold at least until environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and health impact assessments (HIAs) are completed.
The petition filed by Stop Global Warming Association president Srisuwan Janya targets Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong and Pongpanu Svetarundra, deputy permanent secretary for the ministry.
“In taking the loan contracts, they have ignored the court’s ruling. Their action has challenged the laws and constituted dereliction of duty,” Srisuwan said yesterday as he showed up at the NACC office.
On Sunday, NACC chairman Methee Krongkaew also suggested that an official who endorsed loan contracts related to the mega-modules could face a lawsuit for causing incurred interest.
His remark followed Pongpanu’s comment that he had endorsed Bt324 billion in loan contracts with four banks for the modules.
NACC deputy secretary-general Vittaya Arkompituak accepted the petition from Srisuwan yesterday.
Meanwhile, Water and Flood Management Commission (WFMC) chairman Plodprasop Suraswadi argued that in fact the laws required EIAs and HIAs only when projects had the potential to cause serious impacts, and thus only one of the nine water modules would need such impact assessments.
“That means eight of the modules are not subject to EIAs and HIAs,” he said.
Plodprasop said the Central Administrative Court had issued the recent ruling based on the words “town planning” and “land consolidation” in the module plans.
“But these two [phrases] in the plans are far different from the Town Planning Act and Land Consolidation Act.”
The WFMC is in charge of implementing the nine modules. It has already chosen constructors for each module and its choices have won Cabinet approval. However, a problem arose after the Central Administrative Court ordered the EIAs and HIAs first.
