Contentious Bt64-bn scheme draws stiff opposition from various groups; Project will be scrapped if it does not get Cabinet nod: Minister Sophon
The Transport Ministry's controversial multibillion-baht 4,000-CNG-bus scheme appears to be hanging in the balance as it heads for final Cabinet approval today.
Anti-graft and civil-society bodies yesterday voiced strong opposition to the scheme, which was approved in principle last September.
Tul Sitthi-somwong, a representative of the people's network monitoring the project, said the Bt64-billion scheme was dubious and significantly overpriced, so Cabinet should reject the Transport Ministry's proposal.
Senator Paibul Nithitawana, chairman of an anti-corruption Senate committee, also issued a statement opposing the scheme as proposed by Transport Minister Sophon Sarum, who is a key figure of the Bhum Jai Thai party, a powerful member of the Democrat-led coalition government.
Paibul urged the government to conduct a public hearing on this project before giving the final green light, while Tul threatened legal action against Cabinet members who approved the project.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry, National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) and Budget Bureau have expressed strong reservations about the scheme.
They said the Transport Ministry had not acted in accordance with the Cabinet resolution in September with regard to the management of 7,000 employees of the Bangkok Metropolitan Transit Authority (BMTA) who would be put out of work by the project.
According to the Transport Ministry proposal for today's Cabinet approval, only 2,706 BMTA workers have voluntarily joined an early-retirement scheme to accommodate the CNG (compressed natural gas) bus project, which would use electronic tickets, making many bus conductors redundant.
The ministry says the rest of the affected BMTA employees will either reach mandatory retirement or will be reassigned, including to work on free public buses and privately operated buses.
On the BMTA's financial position, the Finance Ministry reported the authority was heavily indebted, with accumulated debts totalling Bt74.7 billion as of May 31. It owed financial institutions 64.7 billion plus another Bt6.5 billion in unpaid fuel and vehicle-repair bills.
In addition, the agency owed Bt6.5 billion to the pension fund.
Its accumulated debts will rise to Bt100 billion in fiscal 2014 if the state agency's problem is not tackled properly, the ministry warned.
The NESDB said the Transport Ministry had modified the CNG project by adding another 800 buses to 73 routes for free services and another 1,000 to 1,200 buses to be operated by private firms under BMTA's concessions. As a result, there was no complete evaluation of the overall scheme.
The NESDB also found that the Transport Ministry's leases of the 4,000 CNG buses had risen from the previous Bt4,355 per day per vehicle to Bt4,690-Bt5,170.
Sophon said he was ready to clarify all critical points of the project during today's Cabinet meeting.
If Cabinet did not grant final approval, he said the ministry would scrap this project and the Finance Ministry would have to set aside an annual budget to subsidise the money-losing city service.
Sophon insisted that the cost of leasing each of the 4,000 buses would not exceed Bt4,300 per vehicle per day throughout the two 10-year lease contracts.
Each of the two contracts will cover 2,000 buses.
A ministry source said Cabinet was unlikely to give the green light to this scheme if Sophon could not clarify the points raised by the NESDB and other state agencies satisfactorily.
"We've worked with the NESDB and other units over the past year, but there are always new issues, so I think the project is highly politicised," said the source.