It was found that a private contractor hired to build houses for the NHA had paid the agency Bt600 million for its land just five minutes after the same amount of money was transferred by the NHA into the contractor's bank account.

Kaewsan Atibodhi, who heads the AEC subcommittee investigating the Ua Arthorn project, said the practice was dubious as the agency was supposed to receive payment for its land before it would pay for the construction cost.

"The money out [of the NHA] was faster than the money in," he said, adding that the land was found to be worth Bt410 million.

"They used the NHA's money to buy its land, even though they had only Bt10,000 left in the account. This has caused us [the AEC] to suspect this purchase could be fishy," said Kaewsan.

He said the probe so far had found no involvement of policy-makers in the suspected irregularity.

The transfers involved 200 rai of land in the Romklao-Bang Phli phase of the Ua Arthorn project.

The project has already been hit by a bribery scandal involving Watana Muangsook, who was the social development and human security minister in the previous government.

Chuanpit Chaimuanwong, former governor of the NHA, showed up at the Auditor-General's Office, which houses the AEC office.

She left shortly before 8pm, 10 hours after the questioning began. Chuanpit brushed off questions from reporters by saying, "Not now please. I already have a headache."

Budsarakham    Sinlapalavan,

Bancha Khangkhan

The Nation