The Assets Examina-tion Committee (AEC) and the National Coun-ter Corruption Com-mission (NCCC) are likely to set up a joint panel to push for an anti-graft national agenda, NCCC spokesman Klanarong Chantik said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Council for Natio-nal Security (CNS) chairman Ge-neral Sonthi Boonyaratglin said the council would push for three urgent issues to be included on the national agenda: national reconciliation, suppression of corruption, and the celebration of His Majesty the King's 80th birthday next year.

The AEC and the NCCC will meet regularly to collaborate on their work, Klanarong said following a lunch meeting between AEC and NCCC members.

While AEC chairman Nam Yimyaem was absent, others AEC members in attendance included secretary Kaewsan Atibodhi, spokesman Sak Korsaengruang, Saowanee Asavaroj, Viroj Laoha-phan and Klanarong.

Klanarong is a member of both agencies.

He said the agencies had discussed collaboration on four cases: the Ua Athorn housing project; land sales by the Financial Sector Restructuring Authority (FRA); the investigation of Krung Thai Bank officers over questionable lending practices; and the Bangkok Metropoli-tan Administration's (BMA) procurement of fire trucks and fire boats.

The NCCC has not investigated the housing project or the FRA cases, but will give the information it has on the Krung Thai Bank loans and BMA procurement to the AEC, he said.

Sak said the AEC would not rush to indict suspects without proper evidence.

As to the investigation of the 2003 land purchase by Khunying Pojaman Shinawatra, the wife of ousted prime minister Thaksin, he said the AEC needed as much information from other agencies as possible.

However, it will eventually be for the courts to rule on the case.

Kaewsan said the AEC would also probe whether land prices during the economic crisis had been priced abnormally low.

He was informed that various wealthy people had forced land prices down on plots pledged for loan collateral, while the law prohibited the original owners from buying the land back.

Sonthi said the CNS and the NCCC had discussed the NCCC's procedures and problems related to its work while having dinner together on Thursday.

"The NCCC's work seems to have made slow progress, so we need to know what it has to do.

"The slow work rate is understandable as there are too few committee members, yet there are tens of thousand cases, which are increasing by 300 each month," he said.

The NCCC is an anti-graft organisation esta-blished under to the 1997 Constitution, while the AEC was established by the now-defunct Council for Democratic Reform on September 19.

The AEC was set up to investigate any projects or acts by members of the Thaksin government and others who are suspected of irregularities, including tax evasion. The committee has also been investigating Pojaman's purchase of land after winning an auction conducted by the Financial Institutions Development Fund.

It is trying to ascertain whether Thaksin, as prime minister at the time, violated Article 100 of the Counter Corruption Act, which prohibits state officials and their spouses from engaging in contractual agreements with state agencies while they are in office.

The issue remains controversial, as the law has yet to be interpreted.

Atthayuth Butrsripoom,

Bancha Khaengkhan

The Nation