UK junket cost up to Bt4.8m

Democrat party-list MP Boonyord Sukthinthai, who is also spokesperson of the committee, said this information was provided by Foreign Relations chief Sirawasa Tosthomporn.

Boonyord said his committee would be meeting soon to decide whether it should take this case to the parliamentary committee on ethics. 

According to the information provided by Sirawasa, up to Bt3.4 million was spent on nine people from the lower house such as House Speaker Somsak, the House deputy secretary-general and secretary of the Parliament president, as well as Pheu Thai MP Vanida Koonpalin. This did not include airfare or the money spent on tickets for a Premier League football match, which could not be reimbursed. 

Boonyord said his committee would ask deputy secretary of the House of Representatives Sompol Vanikphan to provide clarifications about the trip by next Thursday before it decides on whether it should hand the case over to the House panel on ethics. 

As per details provided, MPs and parliamentary staff reportedly spent more than Bt60,000 each, while members of the media spent around Bt100,000 of the taxpayers’ money. Somsak alone reportedly spent Bt2,892,320 on the trip, including buying souvenirs and travel expenses while in England. 

Apart from this, 13 people listed as being part of the junket were actually not present, such as three journalists from Voice TV, which is owned by former PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s son Panthongthae, as well as a reporter from Nation TV.

Though one reporter from Voice TV and two others from the little-known Maxima TV station were part of the entourage, no journalists from the opposition camp were invited to take part. Academic Pit Pongsawat, a deputy dean of Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science and co-host of Voice TV’s “Wake Up Thailand” programme was also part of the junket.