The commission, headed by Senator Prathin Santiprapob, uncovered malfeasance, negligence and deliberate violations of bid regulations committed by city administration officials to rig project specifications to favour certain bidders.

Prathin said the names of more than 10 Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) accused during the one-month probe would soon be released by Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin. The panel recommended criminal prosecution, immediate transfers and disciplinary action as punitive measures.

Detailing the panel's conclusion over bid-rigging, Prathin said a condition had been set to require bidders to have experience building underpasses for the BMA, but this was not made public to all construction companies contending for new projects.

The panel made many suggestions about enhancing the BMA's administrative management. One of the major points was a thorough study into Krungthep Thanakhom Co Ltd, a BMA subsidiary in charge of handling bids.

The other suggestions included:

lThe BMA should hire expert consultant firms to handle projects involving technical advances with which it is not familiar.

lA tender involving several large-scale projects open to many bidders at the same time should be closely monitored, because those bidders may offer unusually low prices to win the entire package in order to subcontract each project among themselves later on.

The BMA's slow response to complaints by losing bidders in some of the 16 projects since last year prompted them to directly send their petitions to the Department of Special Investigation.

 Apirak said later that a committee headed by Praphon Wongwichien, the BMA's chief inspector-general, would decide within the next 15 days which of the accused BMA officials would be punished.

Jeerawan Prasomsap

The Nation