The board spokesman, Vuthiphong Priebjrivat, said TOT would inform the ministry about the transfer but that he had not yet specified to which posts TOT president Somkual Buraminhentre and senior executive vice president Vasukree Klapairee would be sent.

Somkual was managing director of ACT, which was jointly formed by TOT and CAT Telecom to operate the cellular network for Thai Mobile. Later, the two state agencies jointly set up the cellular operator Thai Mobile to provide cellular service.

Vasukree is in charge of Thai Mobile's business development.

Vuthiphong said the auditor-general had written to TOT on Wednesday to inform it she was investigating why Thai Mobile had a huge debt of around Bt8 billion.

TOT is the major shareholder of Thai Mobile, with a 58-per-cent stake, while CAT owns the rest.

TOT is in talks with CAT to buy all 42 per cent of CAT's stake in Thai Mobile as part of the plan to take over the cellular operator.

Vuthiphong added that both senior executives could return to TOT after

the auditor-general finished the investigation.

Thai Mobile, which started operations in 2003, has only about 80,000 subscribers.

The TOT board yesterday also asked TOT to talk with Samart Corp if it wanted to continue providing billing and marketing operations to Thai Mobile.

Samart threatened to stop providing billing and marketing services for Thai Mobile on May 11, because it had not been paid its monthly fees of Bt34 million since 2005. The outstanding payment due totalled Bt850 million as of last month.

Later, the company agreed to postpone the plan to discontinue service to Thai Mobile after a request from TOT, pending the state agency's seeking a solution for Samart.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation