Police station contractor seeks to undo asset 'freeze'

The company at the centre of the much-delayed construction of new police stations submitted documents yesterday requesting that the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) release some Bt450 million in "frozen" assets.

PCC Development and Construction Co executive Pibul Udomsithikul said the frozen funds in its Chiang Mai bank account were payments for work already completed and checked by the Royal Thai Police.

DSI investigator Thawal Mangkhang said he saw no grounds to grant PCC's request. As for the DSI's attempt to retrieve the Bt5.1 billion that the Royal Thai Police had paid PCC in advance, Thawal said investigators were working to trace how the money was spent.

Pibul, whose company won a contract in 2010 to build new police stations nationwide, said the order to freeze its funds had damaged the firm. He added that since a court hadn't ruled that the company committed wrongdoing, the order was illegitimate. He said PCC would sue if the DSI ignored the request.

Insisting the project was legal from the start, Pibul said his firm submitted an offer via e-bidding and won with a price that was Bt540 million less than the Bt6.38 billion estimate. He said the bid was only 8.4 per cent under estimate, and thus wasn't too low. He also revealed that if the project was completed, the firm would see profits of about 10 per cent or Bt500 million.