Anupong, Somkid vow zero tolerance for corruption

The two ministers were responding to remarks by Pheu Thai’s Mahasarakham MP Yutthapong Jarassathian, who questioned the government’s policy on prevention of corruption and suppression on the second day of the policy debate in Parliament.
Yutthapong told Parliament that he did not believe in the government’s policy against graft because Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha had not done anything to crack down on corruption during his five years in power.
Yutthapong cited alleged irregularities in the project of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department as an example. He said 80 per cent of the department budget was spent on procurement of fire engines, which were parked unused.
He said most of the fire engines were bought from the same company.
Yutthapong asked whether Anupong, who was also the interior minister in the first Prayut government, had investigated alleged irregularities in the fire-engine procurement. He said the company was suspected by the National Anti-Corruption Commission of practising bidding collusion.
Yutthapong also questioned the bidding process for the construction of the third phase of the Laem Chabang deep seaport, which is in the area of the Eastern Economic Corridor. The opposition MP said that while the EEC project committee is chaired by the prime minister, it was reported there were efforts to help one of the two bidding firms win the deep sea port project.
In his reply, Anupong said Prayut has instructed all government agencies to be strict against corruption.
Anupong said he would take legal action against any government official found to be involved in corruption. He insisted that no departments and state firms of the Interior Ministry had engaged in corruption during the five years when he was the interior minister.
Anupong insisted the fire engines were needed to fight fires and the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department had spent the normal annual budget for the procurement, whose process was transparent.
“We all want to have transparency. So, we must help each other. When we deliberate the budget bill and spot any repetitive item, we must point it out,” Anupong said.
He called on the opposition to provide him evidence of corruption so that he could take action accordingly. He told the opposition that they could charge him with dereliction of duty if he failed to take action against corruption.
After Anupong had finished his statement, Somkid rose to explain that the government would carefully select the winner of the Laem Chabang deep-sea port project.
While Yutthapong was questioning the government’s anti-corruption policy, Prayut informed the House that he needed to leave to attend a meeting with the head of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Yutthapong said Prayut was skipping the debate because he could not tolerate listening to corruption issues pertaining to his government. Yutthapong’s taunt led to protests by several Phalang Pracharat MPs.
In his response to Yutthapong, Somkid said Prayut’s meeting with the ICAO chief had been scheduled a long time ago. He said the meeting schedule was set before the policy debate.