FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

DSI submits documents to NACC in Orange Line investigation

DSI submits documents to NACC in Orange Line investigation

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) on Tuesday submitted 1,940 pages of documents to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to follow up on an investigation into a case involving possible corruption in the bidding for construction of the Bt128-billion Orange Line western train section.

Srisuwan Janya, secretary-general of the Association for Protection of the Thai Constitution, had earlier submitted a petition to the DSI to investigate the change in the terms of reference (TOR) in the bidding criteria by the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) after the bidding envelopes were sold, which could possible obstruct certain bidders.

One of the bidders, Bangkok Mass Transit System Plc (BTSC), had filed a lawsuit at the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases against the MRTA, claiming that the bid conditions had been altered at the request of Italian-Thai Development despite opposition from fellow bidder BTSC.

The ensuing legal dispute saw the bidding scrapped altogether on February 3 for the 13.4-kilometre line, which is to run from the Thailand Cultural Centre to Bang Khun Non.

 

The DSI has since then been gathering information from all related parties including the MRTA, the State Enterprise Policy Office, the Budget Bureau, BTSC and Italian-Thai Development before concluding that MRTA executives had abused their power as government officials, in violation of Criminal Code Section 1 (16) of the Organic Act on Offences by Government Officials or State Agencies, and sections 11 and 12 of the Organic Act on Offences Relating to the Submission of Bids to State Agencies, leading it to submit the case to the NACC for further investigation.

RELATED
nationthailand