Supreme Court To Hear Bangkok Firetruck Case In November

[webfact]

Supreme Court to hear BMA firevehicle case in November

By The Nation

Scandal reviewed after complaint on Bt6.5bn deal filed by antigraft body

The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders has taken up the case against several highprofile figures, including former Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin, over their role in the Bt6.6billion firevehicle purchase scandal.

The first hearing will take place on November 2.

The court's judges yesterday decided to rule on the case after reviewing the complaint filed by the National AntiCorruption Commission (NACC).

Implicated are Apirak, exinterior minister Bhokin Bhalakula, former deputy interior minister Pracha Maleenont, exdeputy commerce minister Wattana Muangsook, and Pol MajGeneral Atilak Tanchukiat, the former chief of the Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department.

SteyrDaimlerPuch Spezialfahrzeug, the Austrian supplier of the vehicles, is the other defendant.

The case reaches back to 2004, when Bhokin and the then Austrian ambassador to Thailand signed an agreement of understanding for the purchase of new fire vehicles for the Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department, which is part of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).

According to the NACC, Bhokin, Pracha, Wattana, Atilak and the Austrian supplier corruptly arranged the multibillionbaht deal.

Apirak has been accused of negligence for his decision to sign a letter of credit for the deal despite knowing that the project was mired with irregularities.

The signing of the letter of credit is widely blamed for giving the purchase contract full effect and committing Thailand to pay the supplier, which was later found to have sold the fire trucks and fire boats to the BMA at highly inflated prices.

SteyrDaimlerPuch has already delivered the vehicles to Thailand, but the BMA has not yet taken them out of the ports because of the pending legal procedures.

However, because of the letter of credit, the BMA has already paid the supplier.

Apirak has tried to explain that he was legally bound to open the letter of credit by the purchase contract signed by his predecessor as governor, Samak Sundaravej.

Samak has since died and all charges against him have been dropped.

Apirak, Bhokin, Pracha, Wattana and Atilak have been called to testify before the Supreme Court judges on November 2, when the hearing starts at 10am.

A representative of SteyrDaimlerPuch will be called to testify on January 30. The court will send the summons via the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

-- The Nation 2011-08-25

[tigermonkey]

Does anyone have any links where there are details about this case -- I am fascinated, and nothing I have found tells much about the details /chronology of the case. I can only find vague generalizationsabout the corruption, the massive overpayment and the bartering of boiled chickens.

I have no idea why BMA would be buying fire engines from a subsidiary of General Dynamics Euorpean Land Sysyems, a supplier of military combat vehicles. Did they buy the 30 fire boats from the same source ? Are the fire boats in storage with the 315 fire engines -- and why are all of these in storage? Many questions !

[Thai at Heart]

Well, there is one thing you can credit the new government with. Seems like the whole court process has gone into overdrive since they have got in.

Tax cases, red shirts burning down buildings, fire engines, a veritable flurry of politically charged court cases.

[rubl]

Does anyone have any links where there are details about this case -- I am fascinated, and nothing I have found tells much about the details /chronology of the case. I can only find vague generalizationsabout the corruption, the massive overpayment and the bartering of boiled chickens.

I have no idea why BMA would be buying fire engines from a subsidiary of General Dynamics Euorpean Land Sysyems, a supplier of military combat vehicles. Did they buy the 30 fire boats from the same source ? Are the fire boats in storage with the 315 fire engines -- and why are all of these in storage? Many questions !

Maybe start with this from the 12th of November 2008

http://absolutelybangkok.com/a-last-word-on-the-fire-truck-affair/

[samurai]

Apirak has tried to explain that he was legally bound to open the letter of credit by the purchase contract signed by his predecessor as governor, Samak Sundaravej.

legally bounded and following the law ...

Corrupt are always the others

[tigermonkey]

Does anyone have any links where there are details about this case -- I am fascinated, and nothing I have found tells much about the details /chronology of the case. I can only find vague generalizationsabout the corruption, the massive overpayment and the bartering of boiled chickens.

I have no idea why BMA would be buying fire engines from a subsidiary of General Dynamics Euorpean Land Sysyems, a supplier of military combat vehicles. Did they buy the 30 fire boats from the same source ? Are the fire boats in storage with the 315 fire engines -- and why are all of these in storage? Many questions !

Maybe start with this from the 12th of November 2008

http://absolutelyban...e-truck-affair/

Thanks Rubi -- I learned a little more, but as is usual in Thailand ( and many other places), each new "fact" led to at least two more questions. I'll keep digging,in the hopes of an eventual rudimentary understanding.

[siampolee]

Samurai.

Letters of credit are irrevocable financial instruments, once placed that is it, no sign no goods the person or entity that opened the L/C. loses both ways.

The Samak administration was the party that opened the L/C . Samak was hardly a paragon of virtue in many ways as I am sure you are well aware.

Allow a few words on the fire truck and boat procurement scandal that shook and still shakes Bangkok administrations. A classic Thai zero sum game with losers only. Practically everybody involved has now been found guilty according to the National Counter Corruption Commission NCCC. But guilty of what?! (Check comments below for latest updates.)

The height of the scandal had “coincided” with the change of power in Bangkok and the ensuing power struggle between Thailand’s current two main forces. And there the punching bag was, Austrian company Steyr Daimler Puch, manufacturer of the pick-ups, trucks and boats – caught in the center of a textbook Thai power struggle and turned into a grateful scapegoat.

Steyr was accused of overcharging and breaching the contract … I had a talk back then with Steyr’s Bangkok office. The poor Austrians couldn’t believe what they were suddenly accused of. One accusation: According to the contract Steyr had to deliver imported cars. Not true, Steyr said: “The client had seen the “Made in Thailand” prototype.” A scandal was born.

“The client knew,” I was told, “that the empty chassis of the pick-ups would be produced in Thailand. The client knew that car maker Mitsubishi assembles that very model only in Thailand.” Steyr then exported the empty cars to Europe, where they were equipped with all the bells and whistles, and re-exported back to Thailand.

Steyr had even ordered the raw empty chassis at Mitsubishi’s European headquarters in London. As Mitsubishi produced the ordered vehicles solely in Thailand, they built them in Thailand – remember, the “Detroit of the East” … No magic to it, no hidden agenda. The buyer, said Steyr, was completely aware of this.

The Austrians became crooks when the opposition took power in Bangkok. 176 shiny new fire trucks got stuck at customs. Because of unpaid import taxes. And it was “discovered” that the cars smaller, 65 pick-up trucks were produced by “Mitsubishi Motors Thailand.” What a surprise.

Steyr had paid Mitsubishi the equivalent of 14,000 euros for a single chassis. Exported to Europe, equipped with state-of-the-art gear and re-exported to Thailand the final price amounted to about 110,000 euros per unit. Included in this price were spare parts and a half-year training for 800 people.

The Austrians got finally paid for doing what they had to do: fulfilling their contract. While Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin has now been found guilty of wrongdoing for fulfilling Bangkok’s part of the deal: paying the bill; as per the buying contract signed by then-Bangkok governor Samak Sundaravej.

Nobody to this day has any idea about actual corruption involved. But if you just shout loud enough and you got a scandal.

Are the fire trucks and boats actually in service?!

Edited August 26, 2011 by siampolee

[whatsupdoc]

Apirak has tried to explain that he was legally bound to open the letter of credit by the purchase contract signed by his predecessor as governor, Samak Sundaravej.

legally bounded and following the law ...

Corrupt are always the others

That classifies as a very unfair comment. Nobody has even suggested so far that Apirak had a personal gain from the whole affair. If there was corruption it had to do with the Samak administration, not Apirak.

[Thai at Heart]

Apirak has tried to explain that he was legally bound to open the letter of credit by the purchase contract signed by his predecessor as governor, Samak Sundaravej.

legally bounded and following the law ...

Corrupt are always the others

That classifies as a very unfair comment. Nobody has even suggested so far that Apirak had a personal gain from the whole affair. If there was corruption it had to do with the Samak administration, not Apirak.

Seems that way, but who knows what decision the courts will come up with. Squeaky bum time for Apirak maybe.