The National Counter-Corruption Commission (NCCC) has appointed a panel to investigate deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and other members of his government for alleged malfeasance in their privatisation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.

This marks the first attempt to nail Thaksin through a formal corruption investigation.

It followed a meeting of the NCCC yesterday at which it agreed to form a panel to investigate any irregularities involved in the conversion of the Electricity Genera-ting Authority into a public company called Egat.

Panthep Klanarongran, NCCC chairman, said yesterday that Klanarong Chanthik, an NCCC member, would chair the panel to investigate the deal in response to complaints from Lt-General Chamlong Srimuang, political activist Weera Somkwamkid and Egat officials.

Under the Thaksin regime, the Electricity Generating Authority was hastily privatised, although an independent body had not been set up to oversee the power industry.

Moreover, the assets of Egat were not properly separated because some assets such as water reservoirs and power transmission networks were considered national assets.

Still, the Thaksin government went ahead to privatise Egat. After subduing protests from a union, it issued two royal decrees to support the privatisation. The first backed the change of Electricity Authority's legal status from a state enterprise to a public company before renaming it Egat. The second supported the conversion of Egat's assets such as water reservoirs and power transmission networks to private properties.

Egat went on to sell its stocks to its employees during the initial public offering. The management of Egat also staged an international road-show to offer the stocks to foreign institutional investors in what was billed as one of Thailand's largest privatisations.

Egat planned to raise Bt50-Bt60 billion to support its expansion plans to build new power plants and reduce its reliance on public-sector financing.

But a group led by Rosana Tositrakul filed a complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court to block Egat's privatisation. The suit charged that the government violated the law by transferring the public assets of Egat to private properties.

Several power policy-makers had warned earlier that the government should have separated the assets of Egat properly and formed an independent regulator to look after these assets before privatisation.

Yet the government rushed to privatise Egat, with critics suspecting that the power agency would represent a goldmine for politicians to make money before the next general election.

Shortly after the House dissolution in February, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the two royal decrees passed by the Thaksin government to support the privatisation were illegal and were contrary to public interest. The ruling took place while the management of Egat was still on a road-show in the UK.

Klanarong said Thaksin and his associates violated several clauses in the law, particularly Article 157 of the Criminal Code. He said the panel would be set up within the next two weeks so it could launch a formal inquiry.