Internet access 'cut during e-auction'

BURI RAM: -- A construction contractor yesterday filed a police complaint after an unknown man used a sickle to cut his company's high-speed Internet line just minutes before the conclusion of an e-auction for a Bt270-million project.

Noppachai Noppasuwanna-wong of the Buri Ram Thong Chai Construction Ltd Partnership urged Muang district police to hunt for the culprit.

"Between 1.30pm and 2pm today, three companies including mine were bidding online for a Bt270-million pipeline construction project. Just two minutes before the bidding finished, and as I proposed our final price of Bt265 million, a man climbed over our fence and used a sickle to cut the Internet line and ran away," Noppachai said.

The sickle and the suspect's sandals were later found at the scene.

Noppachai said he suspected the man had been hired by a competitor to cut the line to prevent him getting his bid in on time. He said the current e-auction method was not transparent and urged authorities to stage future auctions at a central location where companies could use the Internet to bid for projects at the same place and time.

--The Nation 2005-12-15

Yeah, right.... this guy is a sore loser.

Nice basic solution to a high-tech competition problem.

The sickle and the suspect's sandals were later found at the scene.

Guess he found he could run the Internet superhighway faster this way.

That will teach him, not to be watching e-porn, when he's supposed to be filing his companys' bid for a project !

Or at least not to leave it until the final moments - I almost wrote 'short strokes', but thought better of it. Ooops

Internet access 'cut during e-auction'

"Between 1.30pm and 2pm today, three companies including mine were bidding online for a Bt270-million pipeline construction project. Just two minutes before the bidding finished, and as I proposed our final price of Bt265 million

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Wouldnt have won it anyway!

Well it is a heck of a lot more polite than the traditional Thai method of eliminating contract bidding competition by the use of a man riding on the back of a motorcycle wearing khaki pants, a white t-shirt, black shoes, and sunglasses acting with extreme prejudice by firing a handgun or tossing a grenade.

Buriram is famous for dirty deeds regarding bidding. Many years ago the manager of a Japanese construction company complained he was locked in his room and unable to place his bid in time. His rival bidder was an MP, the son of a famous clan in Buriram.

That son's canvasser was found the night before a general election to be in possession of thousands of banknotes, 100 baht banknotes stapled to 20 baht notes, he claimed he was going to pay the deposit for a house!