NACC takes police-station case over from DSI, sets up fact-finding panel

The police-station construction fiasco is back in the limelight as the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) announced last week that it was launching a graft probe into the issue. 

The commission has set up a committee led by Commissioner Wicha Mahakun to look into dealings involving five individuals, including then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his deputy Suthep Thaugsuban.

The case was previously handled by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), which comes under state jurisdiction, and many said the government was using it to attack the opposition – mainly the Democrats. 

NACC, an “independent” organisation that is not under the government, has decided to take over the case and has even set up a special fact-finding panel. 

The commission will be investigating two politicians – Abhisit and Suthep – and three civil servants, namely then-police chief Pol General Priewpan Damapong, Pol Maj-General Suporn Phanseu, who was logistics commissioner at the time, and current national police chief Pol General Adul Saengsingkaew. 

The commission is also looking into a DSI report as well as a complaint against the three police officers filed by Rak Thailand Party leader Chuwit Kamolvisit. 

In the report, the DSI accuses Abhisit and Suthep of violating a Cabinet resolution reached during the Somchai Wongsawat administration, which required the project to be divided into zones and offered to successful bidders. Instead, the bidding was centralised and only one bidder – PCC Development and Construction Co Ltd – won the contract for the entire project. 

Hence, the DSI concluded that Abhisit and Suthep had abused their authority according to Article 157 of the Criminal Code, and also accused Suthep of violating the Bidding Price Collusion Act.

Violation of Article 157 is punishable by up to 10 years in jail and/or Bt20,000 in fines. Violation of the Bidding Price Collusion Act is punishable by up to 20 years in prison or life for state officials and political office holders. State officials can be fined between Bt100,000 and Bt400,000 for bidding collusion, while political office holders can be fined between Bt140,000 and Bt400,000 for the same offence. 

The DSI also went ahead with launching legal action against PCC executives Piboon Udomsitthikul, Jaturong Udomsitthikul and Wissanu Wisetsing over fraud and violation of the Bidding Price Collusion Act. This case is still with the DSI. 

Meanwhile, Chuwit’s complaint against the three police officers came to the NACC’s attention, as he had accused them of dereliction of duty and failure to cancel the contract when problems started surfacing. 

The NACC-assigned committee will ask experts to become part of an eight-member inquiry subcommittee, which will then summon the accused to provide explanations and information. The inquiry will reportedly kick off next month. When the inquiry is completed, the subcommittee will gather additional facts and make recommendations to the NACC board and tell them whether there are any grounds for a guilty verdict. 

The Bt6.67-billion project to build 396 police stations nationwide was part of the previous government’s “Thai Khemkhaeng” stimulus package. The Royal Thai Police signed a contract with PCC on March 26, 2011, which should have ended on June 17, 2012 but instead was extended three times. Under the third contract, construction was supposed to end on March 14 this year, but was extended to today – April 17. 

The police bureau is hoping to cancel the contract after today’s deadline, but PCC warned on Monday that it would sue the bureau if it cancelled the contract. Pol Lt-Colonel Santana Prayoonrat, adviser to PCC, has been insisting that the firm has only withdrawn 26 per cent of the total budget allocated for the project and had completed work equivalent to that amount. He said up to 73.8 per cent of the budget or Bt4.3 billion remains untouched. He added that the police bureau was slow in vacating the sites for construction so PCC should not be blamed for everything. 

The police-station issue re-emerged during a no-confidence debate raised by Chuwit against Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung, who oversees police affairs. Chuwit accused Chalerm of not taking care of the issue, because it had left thousands of police officers with no stations to work from after the construction delays. 

On December 24 last year, Pheu Thai Party spokesman Promphong Nopparit gave evidence to DSI chief Tarit Pengdith and asked him to launch a graft and bidding-collusion investigation into the police-station project. Tarit followed up by creating a fact-finding committee, which then concluded the case and passed the report over to the NACC.