PCC 'bilked contractors' on project
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More than 10 firms tell DSI they're owed at least Bt4 million each
More than 10 construction firms have filed complaints against PCC Development and Construction Co, the winning bidder in a scandal-plagued project to build new police stations and police flats.
None of the buildings has been completed.
As the firms have come forward, it has become clear that PCC violated the provision in its contract that prohibited subcontracting. Several of these subcontractors said they were unable to finish the buildings assigned to them because PCC had failed to pay them as promised for the completed stages of the work.
“So, we ran into cash-flow problems,” said one of the complainants, Worawut Pitak.
Worawut received a subcontract to build two big police stations in Khon Kaen. He showed up at the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to provide information against PCC yesterday.
The DSI is investigating alleged irregularities in the decision to award the police station and flat projects to PCC.
Ongart Insoam, the owner of another contractor, said his firm also failed to receive full payment for work done for PCC. He believed more than 100 subcontractors faced the same fate.
He wanted the National Police Office (NPO) to seize the deposit placed by PCC when it signed its contract and to allocate the money to the subcontractors.
“Otherwise, we will petition the Central Administrative Court,” Ongart said.
DSI specialist Pol Lt-Colonel Thawan Mangkang said his agency would visit various areas to try to get a sense of the overall picture in this case.
“Each of the subcontractors that have come to the DSI has suffered damages of at least Bt4 million,” he said, adding that some of them lost as much as Bt10 million.
In a related development, NPO spokesman Maj-General Piya Utayo said Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra raised the issue of the unfinished police stations at an NPO board meeting yesterday.
According to Piya, the NPO will allocate a budget to solve the problem to ensure that police can continue working and that the public receives full police services.
Piya added that the superintendents of 396 police stations would be invited to a meeting next week to learn about the problem and how the NPO intends to solve it.
