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Published on December 18, 2007

Surayud said he did not have any shares in the oil and gas company and his wife had sold hers long ago.

He said he had not checked if his Cabinet members held any PTT shares. They might hold a small amount of shares, which cannot be regarded as conflict of interest since they are not major shareholders. In fact, the government is the major shareholder as it held 70 per cent of PTT shares, the premier said.

He said the transfer of PTT assets was to uphold the court ruling and not to benefit anyone. "We're just changing from putting the assets in the right to the left pocket,'' he said.

Surayud said the Cabinet would wait for a ruling of the Administrative Court on whether it wanted the government to postpone the discussion on the evaluation and transfer of PTT's assets.

Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand insisted that he sold out all shares of PTT and other companies in October 2006, after the appointment to the Surayud government.

"I testified this to the Supreme Administrative Court. Now, all my shares are managed by K Asset Management and all of them are of small companies which have no linkage to the state like hospitals," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham said he had sold his PTT shares in October. He dismissed the significance of PTT shareholding by the Surayud Cabinet, saying most of them were former bureaucrats and not businessmen, so they had few shares.

"The point is we have to expedite the evaluation of assets and transfer them to the state,'' he said.

Meanwhile, Saree Ongsomwan, secretary-general of the Foundation for Consumers, admitted yesterday that its chairman had held PTT shares but the fact had not stopped the foundation from filing the case.

She said Assoc Prof Jiraporn Limpanont held PTT shares, but she had never interfered with the work of the confederation in regard to PTT's privatisation.

"We should admire her because even though the foundation decided to file the suit, she never asked us not to do it. We were free to work on the case without any interference,'' she said.

 The Nation