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dam-l LS: Thai's MPs agree billions lost in irrigation project scam
MPs agree billions lost in irrigation project scam
Officials allegedly colluding with firms
Surasak Tumcharoen, Bangkok Post Sept17th
Coalition and opposition MPs teamed up last night to accuse administrators
of the Irrigation Department of conspiring with contractors for personal gain.
On the second day of the second reading on the 2000 Budget Bill, several
MPs said taxpayers' money had been diverted in scams in which corrupt
officials pocketed 5-10% of the value of construction contracts.
Seeking in vain to slash the department's budget amounting to 34.7 billion
baht by 10%, opposition MPs said the government must clean up an agency
that was being exploited by corrupt officials and politicians.
Mana Koosakul, a New Aspiration MP, said: "Could you ask the Irrigation
Department [officials] to stop giving their higher-ups at the [Agriculture]
Ministry a 10% kickback from the cost of each project so you could have it
done more cost-effectively?"Pongsakorn Unopporn, a Chart Thai MP, said
department officials had conspired with contractors in virtually every
province. "Billions of baht in the state budget falls into corrupt hands
which get things done in organised conspiracies with respect to procurement
and construction projects of the department," he said.
Conspiracies which feed on taxpayer's money start, he said, from design and
planning stages through the construction phase of mega-million-baht
projects implemented by the department.
The department is supervised by Anurak Chureemat, a deputy agriculture
minister from Chart Thai.
Mr Pongsakorn said the department has fallen behind on its many projects
and that costs had surged. The department handled not only the building and
dredging of canals but building roads and power lines.
Nirun Namuangrak, a New Aspiration MP, said corruption bloats the cost of
department projects by as much as 30%.
Many of these works were in the constituencies of cabinet members and
coalition MPs, said Mr Nirun.
Premsak Piayura, a New Aspiration MP, said Pramote Maiklad, a man of
honesty and integrity, was unexpectedly transferred as director-general of
the department because he stood in the way of a conspiracy to siphon cash
from the 10.1-billion-baht Klong Tadan dam project in Nakhon Nayok.
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Chainarong Sretthachau
Southeast Asia Rivers Network(SEARIN)
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Tel/fax 6653-221157