Published on June 24, 2005

On top of struggling to retain the post of auditor general, Khunying Jaruvan Maintaka is now fighting to rebut a new allegation relating to her 2002 audit report which exposed corruption stemming from mega-projects.

The House committee on administration yesterday opened its hearing aimed at determining whether Jaruvan had acted beyond her mandate when she uncovered irregularities in two construction projects.

The hearing was convened after House Speaker Bhokin Bhalakula received a petition submitted by auditor Prathan Dabphet.

Prathan, seen as a pro-government figure, was a rival candidate when Jaruvan won her appointment.

“I wonder why Prathan has waited years before questioning my 2002 report,” Jaruvan said yesterday.

She said the allegation against her was groundless because the annual audit report on government spending was prepared and issued by the State Audit Commission.

The commission is the supervising body for auditing work done by the Office of the Auditor General.

“The commission, not the auditor general, is empowered to report to Parliament,” she said.

Prathan had opposed the commission’s recommendations, but he allowed the report to be released, she added.

Prathan’s allegation coincides with the Senate’s move to push for Visut Montriwat to replace Jaruvan, seen as a no-nonsense auditor who has got under the skin of the powers that be.

At yesterday’s hearing, Prathan testified that Jaruvan had exceeded her authority regarding the auditing of two projects: the construction of Suksawat-Bang Phli ring road and the expansion of runways at Phuket and Chiang Mai airports.

With regard to the ring-road construction, he said Jaruvan concluded that bidding prices were fixed despite not being empowered to judge the bidding process.

On runway expansions, he said she claimed to have uncovered bidder collusion, but the State Audit Commission ruled there was insufficient evidence to support her corruption allegation.

The House committee is expected to report its findings to Bhokin on July 6.

Post your comment to this story here