Background:

The scheme was designed for households with incomes of less than Bt22,000 a month. The project was to build more than 601,700 units within six years. It was initiated in 2003.
Investigators found construction was far behind schedule. Many units are in remote and inconvenient areas and may fail to attract buyers. Only 12 per cent of potential buyers guaranteed by the National Housing Authority have been granted loans.
Investigators attribute the problems to loopholes in criteria for selecting contractors and house buyers, and are looking into nine projects out of 181.

Latest development:

Aug 12:The Department of Special Investigation has been asked to summon 92 people to appear before the Assets Examination Committee to give evidence about the Ua Athorn housing project.

July 19: Kaewsan Atibodhi, chairman of a panel probing the Baan Ua Arthorn housing project, said it had found that a powerful figure demanded a kickback of Bt150,000 per house from a construction company. The panel is focusing its investigation on the operation of four construction firms.

 May 8:  AEC resolved to charge former National Housing Authority (NHA) governor, Chuanpit Chaimuanwong, and nine other NHA officials with malfeasance involving the agency's Ua Arthorn housing project.

March 25: Thai-Malaysian joint venture, Pastina Thai, accused of unfairly benefiting from bid rigging involving an Ua Athorn contract complained of heavy-handed investigation tactics by the AEC. The company is believed to be linked with former social development and human security minister Watana Muangsook. 
March 23: AEC has discovered that a private contractor hired to build houses for the NHA had paid the agency Bt600 million for its land just five minutes after the same amount of money was transferred by the NHA into the contractor's bank account.

March 20: AEC set up a subcommittee to interrogate Wattana Muangsuk former Social Development and Human Security minister for suspected irregularties in the Eua-Artorn Housing Project.

President of the AEC’s subcommittee scrutinizing the project, Kaewsan Atipothi (á¡éÇÊÃà ͵Ô⾸Ô) reveals that the new subcommittee will find out whether Mr Wattana violated articles 144, 149, and 157 of the Criminal Code. The article 144 concerns ignorance of duty by state officials while articles 144 and 149 concern bribery of state officials.

Other people alleged of being involved in the corruption include Mana Wongphiwat (ÁҹРǧÈì¾ÔÇѲ¹ì) as well as the Pastilla and the President companies. Mr Mana was the president of the subcommittee monitoring the housing project appointed by the last government. He and the executive board of the Pastilla Company were alleged of bribery while the President Company was alleged of money laundering.

According to Mr Kaewsan, there are witnesses testifying that Mr Wattana demanded Mr Mana to approve the Malaysian Pastilla Company as the project’s contractor. The AEC’s subcommittee has also found a transfer of more than 80 million baht from the company's bank account to Mr Wattana’s. In addition, it has detected an effort to launder the money into the bank account of the President Company which has a personal relationship with Mr Wattana.

AEC will forward the Eua-Artorn corruption case to the Anti-Money Laundering Office and request it to seize assets of the alleged people by the end of this month.