Thai Rak Thai probes Bt6.8-billion truck deal
The Thai Rak Thai Party will next week seek information from Krung Thai Bank on a "new" letter of credit opened by Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin, which the party claims diluted the responsibility of the city administration over the Bt6.8-billion deal for fire trucks from Austria.
Party spokesman Sita Divari said yesterday that an earlier letter of credit opened by then Bangkok governor Samak Sundaravej with the bank required the signatures of a Thai committee before the fire engines could be turned over to Thailand. This letter of credit was revoked, Sita said without elaborating. "But when Apirak opened the second letter of credit, this crucial condition was left out, meaning that the new Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) management team is free from accountability for anything it does," he said. The bank and Austrian manufacturer Steyr Daimler Puch also had talks and reached an agreement that some of the money deposited for payment could be withdrawn for emergency use, he said. "We suspect that this amount of money changed hands as a bribe before the deal was officially signed," he said. On Monday Sita and former MP Pairote Suwannachawee will ask the bank to let them see the letter of credit opened by Apirak. "If the bank shows it to us, we can take a look at it and determine whether this can be used as a 'receipt' to support our theory that the new letter of credit left out other conditions that allow transfers of money to Steyr without requiring any evidence indicating who approved it," he said. In another lead, a senior BMA official has made a written complaint to Steyr claiming that the 30 "Austrian-made" fireboats that were part of the contract were actually assembled in Thailand and sold at an inflated price, Sita said. The vessels were mostly made in Pattaya, and only their engines came from overseas, he said, adding that each boat should have cost only Bt15 million but was priced at Bt25 million. The BMA said it had to postpone delivery of a white paper clarifying the purchase of fire trucks from today until Monday. However, a version of the 23-page paper was published on the BMA's website at www.bma.go.th in the evening. Deputy Governor Wallop Suwandee said the delay resulted from information being added to the document at the orders of Apirak. The white paper will give detailed information on the procurement deal since its beginning, he said.
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