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Published on July 18, 2007

Samak said Apirak spent three months - after becoming governor on September 6, 2004 - considering whether he should approve a letter of credit account with Krung Thai Bank to make the deal proceed, and decided to do so. "There is nothing complicated about the whole matter. Let's say the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration would not have been in trouble had Apirak not got the letter of credit opened. I don't know what prompted him to be worried over his role and what made him finally decide to get the account open," he added.

In an interview with The Nation, Samak did not mention his opening of a letter of credit account which subjected the BMA and Apirak to compensatory fines if Austrian manufacturer Steyr Daimler Puch, who made the fire-trucks, lodged a complaint with an arbitration panel. Samak said he could defend his role in the matter even if he was cross-examined by the As-sets Examination Committee. "There are no irregularities in the reciprocal deal between the foreign party and the Commerce Ministry involving me. The whole technical squabble in the deal was that Thailand wanted to sell raw chicken to them while they wanted cooked chicken."

Meanwhile, Apirak said he had sought counsel over the issue with a law office and with the Democrat Party's legal advisers. He also threatened criminal defamation lawsuits against anyone who made libellous public comments about him over the issue. Apirak had earlier submitted another written explanation to the AEC to clarify his role. "The content is the same but it has been revised to make it easier to understand," he added.

Mayuree     Sukyingcharoenwong,

Jeerawan Prasomsap

The Nation