PCC to sue police if Bt5.8-bn contract cancelled
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Pol Lt-Colonel Santana Prayoonrat, adviser to PCC Development and Construction executive Pibul Udomsithikul, said the company would sue the Royal Thai Police if the agency cancelled the Bt5.848-billion contract for the building of 396 police stations nati
The RTP, which extended the contract until this Wednesday, threatened to officially cancel it if the firm had failed to complete the construction work on schedule.
At a press conference held at the St Regis Hotel in Bangkok, Santhana said the public had not learned all the facts about the case as some information had not been revealed.
He said, for example, that the firm had drawn down Bt1.532 billion to cover construction costs, which was about 26 per cent of the budget, and most of it (25 per cent of the full budget) had been allocated to construction in the regions.
Hence, the amount of work already done was equal to the amount of money the firm had already received.
The company had also had to use money from its own pockets to get parts of the project done, hence the RTP also owed it at least Bt73 million. Some 73.8 per cent of the project budget, or about Bt4.3 billion, has not yet been touched, he added.
Santhana went on to say that the reason the construction work had been greatly delayed was that the hirer had not yet transferred several sites for PCC to proceed with its work.
Some precincts had seen a delay of up to 600 days in site transfer for construction, he said, adding that at least five sites were still to be transferred to the company.
He urged the hirer to take responsibility too, and not just blame everything on the contractor.
“The company is uneasy about what happened, but we won’t take it any more, although we don’t want to elaborate now on how low-ranking through to high-ranking police officials have caused things not to run smoothly, because the contract has not yet been cancelled.
“Whatever happens after April 17, the company vows to progress the construction work within six to eight months, provided there are no disasters, and should be able to hand over to the RTP in 10 precincts,” he added.
Santhana said PCC had also submitted some negotiation offers and documentation about the project management plan for the RTP’s consideration, but had received no reply. People should, therefore, ask national police chief Pol General Adul Saengsingkaew about who or what had pressured him into threatening to cancel the deal.
He still believes all parties can sit down together in a bid to bring about something that will benefit the public and the police as a whole, but it is up to the RTP’s leadership to budge from its current position.
He said that if PCC were allowed to continue its work, it would let the civic sector probe its budgeting and works. However, if this turned into an epic fiasco like the Hopewell project, the company would have to exercise its legal rights, so everything is down to the big decision that is taken by the RTP.
The company will submit a further plan and documents to Adul on Wednesday morning at RTP headquarters, and hopes it will be treated justly, he said.
