Govt urged to delay payments

Deputy PM Wissanu Krua-ngam said a postponement, pending court rulings, wouldn’t help because the first instalment was already paid and this was due to the Supreme Administrative Court’s ruling for the government to pay what it owed.

During a seminar held by the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, Wicha said the trials of state officials were still ongoing, while the determination of the liability of state officials and the private sector still had to undergo the Administrative Court’s process. Third, there was still a lack of clarity over the private sector’s alleged complicity in the fraudulent sale of public land to the Pollution Control Department (PCD). 

Wicha also said NACC officials detected irregularities in the laying of the project’s pipeline. The original plan for the eastern and western sides was shifted to one place and allegedly benefited a firm – particularly when the other firm withdrew its bid, which caused Bt10 billion in damage, he said. If this part wasn’t clearly addressed, how could the government pay the fee?, he asked

Though the Cabinet approved the Bt8-billion payment, he said the resolution could be changed.

Nuannoi Trirat of Chulalongkorn University also said the government should postpone the fee payment until the case at the Supreme Court – in which the PCD sued a company for selling public land to the project – was concluded. 

If the Supreme Court let the department win after the government had paid the fee, how would it get the money back, she asked.

Wissanu said a postponement wouldn’t help as the government had paid the first instalment, in line with the Administrative Court’s ruling for the government to pay what it owed the firm in 90 days, he said. 

The government and private sector had agreed on an interest-free three-instalment plan with a fixed timeframe. If the payment was postponed, they would have to come up with a new agreement.