Bangkok Post
April 8, 2003

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gives panel police-like powers.

An inquiry with police-like authority has been set up to question
witnesses and dig up evidence in the 23-billion-baht Klong Dan
wastewater treatment project scandal in Samut Prakan.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra appointed Pol Lt-Gen Noppadol Somboonsap, director-general of the Special Investigation
Department (SID), as chairman of the panel on Thursday. His deputy
is Pol Maj-Gen Surasit Sangkhapong, head of the Crime Suppression
Division (CSD). The panel will investigate alleged corruption
regarding the 1.9-billion-baht land deal and the bidding for the
contract, which was won by a contractor with close ties to
politicians in government at the time.

A source said the panel’s 34 members would come from the SID, CSD,
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Land Department.
Mr. Thaksin’s order followed an official complaint to the CSD by the
Pollution Control Department, the agency developing the project, about
the legality of the ownership papers of the 1,900-rai block of land the
facility is located on.

The source said it was the first time the government had
set up a committee with police-like authority to probe corruption in
the Klong Dan project.

Previous committees served as preliminary fact-finding teams with no
legal power to obtain documents from state agencies or to interrogate
witnesses. Dawan Chantarahassadi, a local protester, welcomed Mr
Thaksin’s decision. It is the second time Mr Thaksin has empowered the
SID to inspect controversial projects. Last month, he assigned the
agency to investigate the death of a nine-year-old boy who was shot
when police tried to arrest his drug-dealing parents.