Water deals' details sought

Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT) chairman Pramon Sutheewong, expressing concern about graft, yesterday urged the Water and Flood Management Commission (WFMC) to change its thinking and working method to ensure the scheme would be corruption-free.

“This project has not reached its final stage, so there is still the possibility of corruption. We hope to see details of the project contracts,” Pramon said.

He said the ACT would launch its “virtuous contract” campaign to coincide with both this water project and the Transport Ministry’s Bt2.2-trillion transport infrastructure overhaul scheme.

Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) vice chairman Jane Namchaisiri told a seminar hosted by the ACT yesterday that he would study the government’s Bt350-billion water-management scheme contracts before the private sector signs them to try to avoid a repeat of past mistakes.

While admitting that the scheme’s motto of “do good, do right, and do fast” is impossible to achieve in full, Jane insisted that the need to restore industrial-sector investors’ confidence did not remove the necessity to ensure that the process of implementation was sound. Examining the construction aspects of the scheme alone was not sufficient, Jane said; its legitimacy also depended on whether the “single command” and management system that had been adopted was good enough.

He said he would study the contracts before they are signed with the bid-winning companies to evaluate their possible consequences and ensure that their terms do not rule out any necessary later changes. He expressed concern that they should not be signed before the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Health Impact Assessment (HIA) reports are done. He said previous governments had signed problematic contracts before and he wouldn’t want that to reoccur.

The seminar was attended by many engineers, but Water and Flood Management Commission (WFMC) chairman Plodprasop Suraswadi was absent due to a “previous commitment”. The FTI and ACT thus planned to submit the seminar results and suggestions to the Joint Public-Private Committee Meeting during the mobile Cabinet meeting in Kamphaeng Phet on June 9.

Separately, WFMC member Apichart Anukulampai said yesterday that contractors have been selected for all nine project modules.

He said the selection committee would negotiate with the companies selected about the construction prices. The Cabinet would be notified by June 11 about the final prices before the bid winners would be announced.

Apichart said qualified bidders that pass the minimum score of 80 in the technical round would not be publicly announced at this time due to fear of possible lobbying.

Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) president Suwat Chaopreecha, speaking at the ACT seminar, said a mega-project such as this should gather the country’s best minds to achieve the highest benefits instead of implementing it hastily by specifying a loan time frame. He pointed out that the government should not rely on a sole contractor, but should conduct an EIA first and should get more public participation. He also called for the identities to be revealed of the 50 committee members who scored the technical proposals. 

Seub Nakasathien Foundation secretary-general Sasin Chalermlarp expressed concerns about a lack of checks and balances regarding the EIA and HIA reports, because Plodprasop is also National Health Commission chair. He said this meant it was as if Plodprasop proposed the report and approved it. Urging the government to say what was wrong with the old model for the water project, rather than spending Bt350 billion in one go, he also warned that the claim of having garnered over 90 per cent public support through the gathering of signatures at a water exhibition was dangerous. 

Meanwhile, a former water-drainage adviser to the prime minister, Uthane Chatpinyo, expressed concerns that the scheme’s “A5” module might be frivolous spending. He proposed that canal dredging, changing the canal bottoms into concrete surfaces, and additional water draining-device installation would be a more-economic, cheaper and effective solution. 

Taking journalists to inspect the Khlong Tam Rhu, Bang Plara, Suvarnabhumi, and Chonhan Phichit water sluice gates in Samut Prakan, he said that if these sluice gates were improved, they could prevent floods without the government spending Bt150 billion to build a flood-diversion channel as called for in the “A5” module. He said they should give importance to canals to drain water into the sea (possibly digging more canals to divert water into seaside drainage stations, and adding a drainage station in Bang Pu), rather than just draining water into the Chao Phraya River as it could overflow and cause flooding. Saying his solution would cost less than Bt15 billion, Utane said he would send a letter with his suggestions to Yingluck before the project’s bidding result was announced on June 4 and hoped she would heed them and review the project to save the Thai people’s tax money.