Red Tape Stalling Alert System

Smith: Red tape stalling alert system

Panel in charge lacks authority, manpower

BANGKOK: -- Red tape is delaying the installation of an integrated tsunami warning system for the six provinces devastated by the Dec 26 tsunami, the head of the committee assigned to install it said yesterday. Smith Dharmasarojana, assistant to a Prime Minister's Office minister, said he had neither the staff to arrange the importation of the equipment nor the authority to buy it.

Mr Smith was speaking after yesterday's mobile cabinet meeting in Phangnga.

His panel has been tasked with installing a tsunami warning system, which includes sirens at popular Andaman coast beaches. It will be wired to the National Disaster Warning Centre's Control and Transmission Centre in Nonthaburi province.

However, the authority to buy the necessary equipment rests with the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the Meteorological Department, and its purchase is subject to the usual bureaucratic procedures, he said. It must go through a lengthy process of committee-based specification examination and bidding contest evaluation.

``Procurement under these procedures is lengthy. I am cutting my own throat explaining this, but there's an order to set up all warning areas before the end of this year, including the connection with the National Disaster Warning Centre,'' Mr Smith said.

He had forwarded the list of needed equipment four months ago and the Budget Bureau had already allocated sufficient funds. It still had to go through all the red tape, including the scrutiny of bidding results, and now the signatures of the PM's Office permanent secretary and a PM's office minister were also needed. The bid winner was waiting for his contract and would not install the equipment until it was signed, Mr Smith said.

Under the project, 62 siren towers will be put up along the Andaman coastline _ 16 in Phangnga, four in Phuket, 12 in Krabi, 11 in Trang, 14 in Satun and five in Ranong.

Mr Smith reported to the cabinet yesterday that the project could not be completed by Dec 26 this year, the first anniversary of the disaster, but there would be at least four towers on crowded beaches in each of the affected provinces and at least one tsunami warning sensor floating offshore.

Mr Smith said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had suggested that the governors of the affected provinces should spend their provincial budgets on buying compatible warning equipment right away.

If their funds were insufficient, they could seek more money from the PM's Office, which will consider using money donated to the the fund for tsunami victims.

Mr Smith also said that Information and Communications Technology Minister Sora-at Klinprathum had expressed concern about the price and quality of equipment to be installed under the central government's project, because there were only two contenders and their quotations were so close.

Deputy government spokesman Danuporn Poonakan said the cabinet approved a budget of 230 million baht to set up a television tsunami warning network and to help schools and communities learn more about tsunamis. The cabinet also approved 410 million baht for setting up a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia.

--Bangkok Post 2005-09-07