Lawyers council restarts Bangkok firetruck case for NACC

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Lawyers council restarts Bangkok firetruck case for NACC
By Samatch Hunsara
The Nation 2011-07-16

A team from the Lawyers Council of Thailand plan to file a complaint with the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Persons Holding Political Positions against four politicians allegedly involved in irregularities in the purchase of fire trucks for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).

The National AntiCorruption Commission had asked the council to designate a team to help the NACC process the case.

NACC secretarygeneral Apinan Issarangkul na Ayudhaya said the team would file the complaint against the four politicians with the Supreme Court on July 25.

The four are former interior minister Pokin Pollakul, former commerce minister Wattana Muangsuk, former Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin, and the former director of the Fire and Rescue Department, Pol MajGeneral Athilak Tanchookiat. Pokin's former deputy minister Pracha Maleenont is also named.

The legal team will also file the same complaint against SteyrDaimlerPuch Spezialfahrzeug AG & Co KG of Austria.

The NACC previously sent documents and reports related to the case to the Office of the AttorneyGeneral for the purpose of filing a complaint to the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Persons Holding Political Positions, but the attorneygeneral said the documentation was incomplete.

The NACC later teamed up with the attorneygeneral to set up a special working group to study the incomplete reports and documents but the group could not come up with a satisfactory resolution.

The BMA bought hundreds of fire trucks and other firefighting equipment from the Austrian company several years ago, but the contract was made invalid and the vehicles confiscated by the NACC, which ruled that the vehicles were overpriced. It accused many politicians and former ministers from the dissolved Thai Rak Thai party and BMA officials of corruption in the scandal.