NACC wants govt to decide on ‘monument of corruption’ aquarium in Songkhla

Kiartisak Putphan, assistant secretary to the NACC Area 9 Office, made the call when he led a team of reporters and NACC officials from his office to inspect the aquarium located inside Tinsulanonda Fisheries College in Tambon Pawong of Songkhla’s Muang district.

The aquarium stands as a white building in the shape of a conch shell.

The project was initiated by the Office of the Vocational Education Commission in 1993 and construction started in 2008 with the initial schedule to be completed in 2011.

Despite spending 1.4 billion baht in its construction, the aquarium remains unfinished and unable to serve as a marine museum as intended.

The NACC decided last month to charge 27 people in connection with the project, but the agency has declined to give details of the charges against them so far.

Kiartisak told reporters while inspecting the construction site that his office needed 45 more days to draft the investigation report before details of the charges against the 27 persons would be made public.

He said his office has detected collaboration to siphon money off from the project, from the process of designing the aquarium and the amendments of reimbursement procedures to benefit the contractor.

Kiartisak added that the specifications of the aquarium were shortchanged in over 102 items, making the building useless to be an aquarium or a maritime museum, which was why it had been left unused for years.

Initially, the project was proposed with a budget of 838 million baht. The vocational education office later sought another 381 million baht for building marine nurseries around the aquarium. Another budget of 286 million was sought after it could not be finished in time.

Kiartisak said the 27 suspects included four former executives of the vocational education office, including the one who had signed in approval of the project and the person who approved the amendment of the contract.

Certain suspects would face both civil and criminal lawsuits, he added.

But what he and the people of Songkhla wanted was a decision by the government on what to do with this "monument of corruption”.

He said the government should not leave the large and grand building standing useless, as it would hurt the feelings of local people.

“This is a large construction, as large as a stadium, and it could be a selling point for the country,” Kiartisak said.

“The question is what should be done to correct it and make it useable.”

Kiartisak noted that there was no road leading to the building, as if it was designed to remain unused from the beginning.