ความคิดเห็นที่ 47
อีกอันจาก นสพ.ออสเตรเลีย ลองอ่านดูนะ
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20470335-2703,00.html
Thailand's corruption watchdog reborn
Peter Alford, Bangkok
September 25, 2006
THAILAND'S anti-graft commission, inert for the past 16 months, will convene today to start examining alleged corrupt activities involving former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and members of his administration.
The National Counter-Corruption Commission's priority case will be the so-called CTX scandal at Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi international airport, according to one of the nine new commissioners.
"The CTX case is deemed a priority for setting the stage to deal with graft violations involving the previous administration," former Supreme Court judge Wicha Mahakhun told The Nation newspaper.
The 4 billion baht ($142 million) procurement of CTX9000 explosives detection machines from the US was the worst of several corruption scandals at Suvarnabhumi airport, which was under construction for five years and opens for business this week.
A Senate committee has estimated the cost of procuring and installing the machines was inflated by Bt1.2 billion by graft.
The scandal cost transport minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit his job last year. The CTX case is already under investigation by the Auditor-General's office.
The NCCC has been idle since May last year, when the Supreme Court found the commissioners at the time had acted unconstitutionally by awarding themselves big pay rises. They resigned and were not replaced.
A selection process started in May but was still not complete when army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin overthrew the Thaksin government last week.
One member of the new panel, Klanarong Chantik, is a former NCCC secretary-general who played a large role in investigating asset concealment allegations against Mr Thaksin but was forced into retirement in 2003.
The new commission has an estimated backlog of 10,000 cases but, as with the Auditor-General's Office, is expected to give priority to cases directly involving senior members of the former Thaksin government, and particularly the ousted prime minister.
Mr Thaksin, 57, remains in at least temporary exile in London.
He has not clarified whether he plans to come home but General Sonthi, who now leads the interim Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy, said at the weekend Mr Thaksin had telephoned to say he had stopped his political activities.
Mr Thaksin's largest problem is the investigations into various aspects of his family's controversial Bt73 billion sale in January of a controlling interest in the Shin Corp communications group to Temasek Holdings of Singapore.
Thailand's central bank has stated that Bt50 billion of the sale proceeds directly held by members of Mr Thaksin's family - he claimed to have divested all Shin Corp interests to them when he became prime minister in 2001 - remains inside the country.
"We haven't frozen any assets because we don't have the authority to do so," said Bank of Thailand governor Pridiyathorn Devakula. "We can freeze assets only when instructed by the authorities."
Last year, before the sale, Forbes magazine estimated the Thaksin family's wealth at $US1.3billion.
A CDRCM official was quoted at the weekend saying the wealth Mr Thaksin accumulated before becoming prime minister would not be touched but assets acquired since would be liable to seizure if found to have been acquired illegally.
Contrary to earlier reports, including in The Australian, Mr Thaksin's wife, Potjamon Shinawatra, a powerful behind-the-scenes figure throughout his leadership, and son Panthongtae have not left Thailand to join him.
Ms Potjamon is living under tight security provided by the authorities at one of the family's Bangkok residences.
Their eldest daughter, Pinthongta, who is counted as one of Thailand's richest women as a result of the Shin Corp transaction, is studying in London.
General Sonthi's CDRCM is expected to move this week to appoint a prime minister to head an interim administration that will govern until elections are called some time next year.
จากคุณ :
thyrocyte 
- [
29 มิ.ย. 50 00:12:52
A:124.121.37.13 X:
]
|
|
|
