Kiat calls on police to trace money trail in CTX scandal
Democrat Party executive Kiat Sittheeamorn yesterday urged the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to continue tracing the transactions involved in the Bt643-million purchase of CTX scanners for Suvarnabhumi Airport.
On Sunday, Kiat said the transactions involved a lot of people, including senior judges, businessmen and bank officials, even though they were not involved in the machines' purchase. Worapoj Yasadatt, the managing director of Patriot Business Consultants, which was the middleman in the purchase, admitted on Monday he had used Bt80 million of the money to buy four rai of land on Rajapruek Golf Course. But DSI director-general Sombat Amornwiwat said on Monday there were no irregularities in the transfer of the Bt80 million to purchase the land. Kiat questioned his hurried conclusion. He said he was finding it difficult to believe anything because money from the purchase of the scanners had been paid to judges, businessmen and bankers. "The DSI should track this money. So far it has investigated only Worapoj. We haven't noticed the DSI calling on anyone who received money from Worapoj," Kiat said. Worapoj had taken Bt80 million out of the Bt643 million to buy land, yet when a company received income it had to pay tax on it. But Patriot did not submit an annual statement to the Commerce Ministry, he said. Therefore, it was the duty of the ministry and the Revenue Department to question Patriot about the money and Worapoj had to explain about the tax payment, he said. Kiat queried why the DSI had not been suspicious about Patriot's decision to return the Bt643 million to the government after it was decided to by-pass the middle-man and buy the scanners directly from GE InVision, the supplier. The decision came after a public outcry over the middleman scandal. A source at Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT), which will run Suvarnabhumi Airport, said ITO Joint Venture had to return the Bt643 million, not Patriot, because ITO was the main contractor for the installation of the explosives detecting system. The source said the DSI should check to see whether ITO had demanded the money back from Patriot. If AOT did not receive any money, then it could always sue ITO. The Bt643-million payment Patriot received from ITO was part of a Bt2 billion contract to install the baggage-scanning system, which includes 26 CTX explosives detectors. Worapoj said last year some of the Bt643 million had been spent on operating expenses, salaries and materials. The remainder was in an account at Thai Military Bank.
Sucheera Pinijparakarn The Nation
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