Action sought against top GPO official

Witit will today hold a news conference to try to convince the public of his innocence by explaining |the precursor procurement procedures.
Pradith said he had received the results of a probe by the Department of Special Investigation, which suspected that Witit and then-GPO chairman Wichai Chokwiwat were involved in the alleged bid-rigging of the contract to purchase substances from China for the production of paracetamol during the flooding in 2011.
According to the DSI’s report, Witit and Wichai had given unreasonable answers in their testimonies, Pradith said.
Wichai also did not stop this practice during his term.
The DSI’s findings will be sent to the National Anti-Corruption Commission for further investigation.
Tarit Pengdith, director-general of the DSI, said his agency had uncovered five irregularities:
- The GPO stopped making paracetamol in 2001 and hired the Defence Pharmaceutical Factory and Osot Inter Co to produce it from precursors provided by the GPO.
In the past, the GPO imported |the compounds from only one company.
- The Defence Pharmaceutical Factory found contamination in the precursors.
- The GPO’s factory is still under construction but it continued to import the precursors.
- The GPO used a special procedure to procure the precursors, citing the massive flood in 2011.
- The GPO imported only 150-600 kilograms of the materials for making paracetamol.
“This is just the preliminary conclusion of the investigation. Witit and Wichai are still not accused in this case,” Tarit said.