BMA FLAYED OVER BUDGET ALLOCATION

Phakdeeharn Himathongkham also called on Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra to clarify the purchase of 42 water-suction trucks from Japan at Bt8 million apiece, which he said is twice the normal price. The trucks were distributed to a number of district offices, which had never asked for it.
He also alleged that the companies that sold these trucks might have connections with senior BMA officials or certain members of the BMA management.
Most of the budget will be spent on 10 sets of heavy machinery used in repairing roads and pavements. The Bt1-billion budget will be made up by a Bt100-million allocation from this year’s BMA budget and the remaining Bt900 million from next year’s budget. The budget request, which did not include any specifications of the items to be purchased, was scrutinised by Deputy Bangkok governor Theerachon Manomaiphibool and approved in two days.
Phakdeeharn also alleged that the contracting firms who won the bids were actually owned by Democrat MPs, adding that he would lodge this issue with the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
The spokesman also questioned the approval of a project renting garbage trucks for seven years for Bt4 billion, adding that these two firms that won all four projects regularly won BMA contracts.
He said these firms could allegedly be operating through a network of proxies in order to minimise scrutiny of them conspiring to rig the bidding process of either this or earlier projects.