AEC to tell PM about recalcitrant agencies
The Assets Examination Committee (AEC) will seek a meeting with Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, and the Council for National Security (CNS), to find a solution concerning state agencies that are not cooperating with the AEC in its investigations.
Spokesman Sak Korsaeng-reung said they would complain to CNS chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin after his return from China, and Surayud, about the failure of state agencies to fully cooperate by lodging complaints against political office-holders whom the AEC suspects of corruption. Four corruption cases in which the AEC wants relevant state agencies to lodge complaints are the CTX bomb-scanner procurement, the purchase of the underground power-line system, a land purchase by Pojaman Shinawatra and the rubber-saplings project. The AEC said investigations into the four cases had been delayed. Airports of Thailand did not name any suspects when they lodged complaints in the CTX and the underground power-line case. Two of the suspects the AEC incriminated are deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and former Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit. The Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) - the central bank's financial-rescue arm - also did not indicate details about the damage done from the land deal by Pojaman.The Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund (ORRAF) also refused to lodge a complaint as suggested by the AEC, instead opting to seek a legal interpretation by the Attorney-General's Office as to whether it had the right to lodge a complaint against the suspects in the rubber-saplings project. AEC chairman Nam Yimyaem was frustrated by the ORRAF move, saying the agency was wrong in not obeying the AEC's order to lodge a complaint. "The AEC has absolute and full power, and we'll ask the CNS to make the ORRAF lodge the complaint as soon as possible," he said. Meanwhile, Bank of Thailand Assistant Governor Phairoj Hengsakul yesterday said the FIDF did not provide further information to the AEC regarding damages in the case of the land purchase by Pojaman, because the fund's board of directors did not think there was any need for any. However, he said if the AEC wanted the FIDF to submit additional information, the AEC should send a letter asking for it, said Phairoj, who is also manager of the fund. Pojaman bought land auctioned off by the FIDF, paying Bt772-million for four plots on Ratchadaphisek Road. Budsarakham Sinlapalavan, Anoma Srisukkasem The Nation
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