Auditors blasted over PTT gas pipeline

 Amnuay Preemonwong, deputy permanent secretary at the ministry, said the SAC and the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) had intentionally concealed important information from the public when the SAC held a press conference on May 10 to accuse PTT of not fully returning the gas pipeline, and state officials of negligence in performing their duties in accordance with a Cabinet resolution made on the issue on December 2007.

 Amnuay, who is one of the defendants, said the Supreme Administration Court had set the guidelines that PTT should return the pipeline assets – those that could not be constructed without utilising state power prior to PTT’s partial privatisation – to the state, |and had assigned the finance and energy ministries to work out the details.

 The ministries subsequently decided to order PTT to return only its onshore pipeline system to the state, he pointed out.

 “The OAG has raised the question of why the Supreme Administrative Court took just one day to consider the case after PTT submitted the conclusion reached to the court. But we had reported progress to the court nine times, prior to the conclusion,” he stressed.

 Amnuay said four or five lawsuits had been filed with the court over the past several years, and every time the court’s ruling was that the required pipeline transfer had been completed. 

 

Verdict reached 

“If we don’t believe the court, who else can we believe? The OAG can have its opinion if there has been no resolution. But in this matter, the court has already reached its verdict,” he said. 

 “Do the executive, judicial and legislative powers have to come under the OAG?” the official said.

 Moreover, he said the OAG and SAC had also intended to conceal from the public the fact that the Supreme Administrative Court held the plenum session of its judges on April 7 and made a ruling that the PTT had already returned the assets in accordance with the court’s earlier resolution.

 “Another important fact is that the OAG is the auditor that has unconditionally approved PTT’s financial statements all along, despite the OAG having always protested that PTT did not fully return its assets.

 “This means the OAG has provided false information to the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] and shareholders of PTT, which is a severe breach of ethics for which somebody has to take responsibility,” he asserted.

Auditor-General Pisit Leelawatcharopas told the media on May 10 that the SAC agreed with the findings of the OAG that the return of the pipeline system to the state by PTT did not comply with the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court, which should include the offshore pipeline system worth about Bt32 billion.

 Seeking to clarify this matter, Amnuay said that unlike the onshore pipeline, for which PTT had expropriated the land for laying down the pipeline, the subsea pipeline system – like other offshore infrastructure such as submarine fibre-optic cable, offshore platforms, and ports – had been built without utilising state power, or undermining the rights of the public.