The Office of the Auditor-General has asked graft fighters to investigate 47 corruption-plagued government and state enterprise projects which had cost the country about 60 billion baht in damage.

The Office of the Auditor-General has asked graft fighters to investigate 47 corruption-plagued government and state enterprise projects.

Jaruwan Mainthaka, the auditor-general, said the corruption had cost the country

about 60 billion baht in damage. ”Most of the cases involve price collusion and took place in 2000 and 2001 fiscal years,” she said.

”The office has investigated those projects since January this year.”

Mrs Jaruwan, however, declined to say if any politicians were implicated, saying it was the job of the National Counter Corruption Commission to consider actions against those involved.

Among those graft-tainted schemes are a long-distance telephone project which has cost the state an extra 20 billion baht, an annual vehicle tax scheme which fell short of the target by 10 billion baht, and a 200-million-baht scheme to build 11 silos.

As for an investigation into the purchase of land for construction of the office of the Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives Bank, Mrs Jaruwan said her office was investigating three points _ the price of land, its location, and the alleged brokerage fee.

She said the land bought at 896 million baht was considered overpriced. Also, it was located in an “orange zone” where high-rises were prohibited.

”And there were brokers involved in the deal. We are going after a 30-million-baht cheque,” she said.

The purchase contract was signed on Oct 31,1995 and a 10 percent deposit _ or about 89 million baht _ was paid to Suaysompol Corporation in cashier’s cheque on that day.

The land was transferred on Dec 1 the same year and a payment of 461 million baht was made to the firm in cashier’s cheque.

After the transfer, the bank issued a cashier’s cheque worth 336.1 million baht to the company with the payment to be made on Dec 8 the same year.

Mrs Jaruwan said the investigation could be wrapped up once the office had information about the 30-million-baht cheque.

It was reported that the actual amounts of money paid by the bank might not be consistent with the amounts appearing on the contract.

Meanwhile, Panya Tantivarong, chairman of the State Audit Commission, said a number of government officials would have their salaries cut as part of disciplinary action.

The salary cut measure would be imposed on government officials found guilty of offences reported after October last year, he said.

The Office of the Auditor-General had come under sharp attacks in the Senate recently. Some senators accused the office of failure to do its job well enough, while others said its performance was not worth the budget allocated to the office each year.

Bangkok Post, December 13, 2002