Thailand's National Anti-Corruption Commission To Probe Purchase Of Pricey Forensic Devices

[webfact]

NACC to probe purchase of pricey forensic devices
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- The National Anti-Corruption Commission has launched a graft probe into the procurement of GT200 and Alpha 6 detection devices.

The probe, led by NACC member Vichai Vivitasevi, is expected to focus on three key charges for fraud, bidding collusion and inflated price involving 13 government agencies.

Of the 13, the Central Institute for Forensic Science of the Justice Ministry is the prime target for investigation.

The institute is accused of paying unusually high prices for the devices.

The NACC probe will be based on the report by the Department of Special Investigation submitted last July.

In a related development, the United Kingdom's Crown Prosecution Service will dispatch a team later this month to meet with the NACC and DSI to collect evidence on the UK-based supplier ComsTrac.


-- The Nation 2013-03-20

[meatboy]

pricey forensic devices, what about the gloves.

[cloghead]

The fixer, arranger, facilitator consultant didn't get his share of the scam contract that he was expecting

[Moruya]

This was a deal dome by the armed forces wasn't it?

[Payboy]

I think I've seen that same device in another news photo recently.

[Pimay1]

I wish they would open the case of these two devices, take a closeup photo and publish it. I suspect all that is inside is a heat detecting diode and a cheap audio circuit. Or something similar. When the diode reaches body temp it triggers the audio circuit giving a beeping sound. Can get parts and build for under $10.00

[prestburypark]

A quick google search turned up this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8481774.stm

Someone's been had big time, do they not have their own techies check stuff out?

Edited March 20, 2013 by prestburypark

[dcutman]

I wish they would open the case of these two devices, take a closeup photo and publish it. I suspect all that is inside is a heat detecting diode and a cheap audio circuit. Or something similar. When the diode reaches body temp it triggers the audio circuit giving a beeping sound. Can get parts and build for under $10.00

According to Lt Gen Daopong Rattansuwan, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Royal Thai Army, each GT200 bought by the army cost 900,000 baht (£17,000/$27,000), rising to 1.2 million baht (£22,000/$36,000) if 21 "sensor cards" were included with it.^[27] In total, Thailand's government and security forces have spent between 800–900 million baht ($21 million) on the devices.^[7]

and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each

So the UN got screwed and Thailand tax payers got screwed 7x as hard.

[noitom]

This is like the ceiling water sprinklers that fall of the ceiling of the schools 6 months after the new "fire" alarm system was installed and the humidity worked its magic on the construction shortcuts. The sprinklers were glued on and no "system" stood behind them.

[EyesWideOpen]

The saddest part of this idiocy was when the generals put up the well known and respected Dr. Pornthip to defend this piece of crap when the shit started to fly and serious face was being lost. Or should I now say formerly respected...

[cloghead]

I wonder how much $$$ Khun Vichai Vivitasevi will get in compensation for manipulating a "no harm / no fault" outcome in the investigation

[backtonormal]

The saddest part of this idiocy was when the generals put up the well known and respected Dr. Pornthip to defend this piece of crap when the shit started to fly and serious face was being lost. Or should I now say formerly respected...

The saddest part of this idiocy was that the army believed that evidence from a 'khun Ying' would not be doubted by the Thai people

[rubl]

From wiki:

"The GT200 is used extensively in Thailand.^[27] Reportedly, some 818 GT200 units were procured by Thai public bodies since 2004. These include 535 bought by the Royal Thai Army for use combating the South Thailand insurgency and another 222 for use in other areas, 50 purchased by the Royal Thai Police for use in Police Region 4 (Khon Kaen), 6 bought by the Central Institute of Forensic Science, 6 by the Customs Department, 4 by the Royal Thai Air Force and 1 by Chai Nat police.^[28] Other agencies such as the Border Patrol Police Bureau and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board use a similar device, the Alpha 6, procured from another company.^[27] According to the Bangkok Post, the Royal Thai Air Force first procured the GT200 to detect explosives and drugs at airports, followed by the army in 2006.^[29] According to Lt Gen Daopong Rattansuwan, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Royal Thai Army, each GT200 bought by the army cost 900,000 baht (£17,000/$27,000), rising to 1.2 million baht (£22,000/$36,000) if 21 "sensor cards" were included with it.^[27] In total, Thailand's government and security forces have spent between 800–900 million baht ($21 million) on the devices.^[7]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT200

[EyesWideOpen]

Well let's see. According to the Wikipedia site, some GT 200s were bought for use in Africa. The stated price was $ 5000. Hmmmm. The stated Thai price was $ 27,000.So I guess that left

$ 22,000 in skim PER UNIT for the generals. Wow nice work if you can get...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT200

"The Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each and distributed them to the five LATF member states."

So I guess this means the generals will have to cough back some of their 22 million bucks to the NACC to make this quietly go away. I LOVE this place !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited March 20, 2013 by EyesWideOpen

[Schuimpge]

I wish they would open the case of these two devices, take a closeup photo and publish it. I suspect all that is inside is a heat detecting diode and a cheap audio circuit. Or something similar. When the diode reaches body temp it triggers the audio circuit giving a beeping sound. Can get parts and build for under $10.00

If I see it correctly...the picture shows 2 sides of 1 device...opened up and showing that there is nothing inside.

Amazing,...27,000 USD for some plastic...

[rubl]

Well let's see. According to the Wikipedia site, some GT 200s were bought for use in Africa. The stated price was $ 5000. Hmmmm. The stated Thai price was $ 27,000.So I guess that left

$ 22,000 in skim PER UNIT for the generals. Wow nice work if you can get...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT200

"The Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each and distributed them to the five LATF member states."

So I guess this means the generals will have to cough back some of their 22 million bucks to the NACC to make this quietly go away. I LOVE this place !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, don't single out the RTA only. The wiki article also lists the RTP and other organisations.

BTW in line with the 'police station' scandal which of course is to be blamed on Abhisit/Suthep, may I remind that the first GT200 units were ordered in 2004 under the PMship of our most popular criminal fugitive who is totally innocent of course as he didn't control the RTA in the same way as Abhisit/Suthep controlled the RTP

[kerrysum]

I wonder how much $$$ Khun Vichai Vivitasevi will get in compensation for manipulating a "no harm / no fault" outcome in the investigation

The sky is the limit..... what ever it takes......

[EyesWideOpen]

Well let's see. According to the Wikipedia site, some GT 200s were bought for use in Africa. The stated price was $ 5000. Hmmmm. The stated Thai price was $ 27,000.So I guess that left

$ 22,000 in skim PER UNIT for the generals. Wow nice work if you can get...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT200

"The Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each and distributed them to the five LATF member states."

So I guess this means the generals will have to cough back some of their 22 million bucks to the NACC to make this quietly go away. I LOVE this place !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, don't single out the RTA only. The wiki article also lists the RTP and other organisations.

BTW in line with the 'police station' scandal which of course is to be blamed on Abhisit/Suthep, may I remind that the first GT200 units were ordered in 2004 under the PMship of our most popular criminal fugitive who is totally innocent of course as he didn't control the RTA in the same way as Abhisit/Suthep controlled the RTP

You are correct Uncle. Other organisations bought this plastic box as well. I was just trying to figure out a sort of base " wholesale" price to see what skim the Thai generals had worked out on their inflated purchase price....

Since to the best of my knowledge the RTA has never been punished for ANYTHING EVER, I suspect they are not very worried. On a cosmic scale this is small change compared to the Tak Bai massacre. They escaped that with scarcely a tap on the wrist...

Edited March 20, 2013 by EyesWideOpen

[prestburypark]

I might go do some R&D and come up with something by tomorrow tea-time...a bullshit/corruption detector with a wind vane on top and some led's, I can see the offshore account filling up, where those Generals at?

[jayboy]

Well let's see. According to the Wikipedia site, some GT 200s were bought for use in Africa. The stated price was $ 5000. Hmmmm. The stated Thai price was $ 27,000.So I guess that left

$ 22,000 in skim PER UNIT for the generals. Wow nice work if you can get...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT200

"The Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each and distributed them to the five LATF member states."

So I guess this means the generals will have to cough back some of their 22 million bucks to the NACC to make this quietly go away. I LOVE this place !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, don't single out the RTA only. The wiki article also lists the RTP and other organisations.

BTW in line with the 'police station' scandal which of course is to be blamed on Abhisit/Suthep, may I remind that the first GT200 units were ordered in 2004 under the PMship of our most popular criminal fugitive who is totally innocent of course as he didn't control the RTA in the same way as Abhisit/Suthep controlled the RTP

Congratulations.You have been nominated for the Sriracha John memorial prize for an irrelevant introduction of Thaksin into a topic.

If you are going to quote Wiki be honest about the fact that the RTA purchased the vast majority of this piece of junk.

Pornthip's record in this is appalling, and the fact she was on the committee that initially endorsed this crap raises some disturbing questions.

There is huge credit here for Khun Abhisit.At a press conference he arranged it was demonstrated that of 20 tests made the GT 200 worked only 4 times (using a double blind test).If it was pure random it should have worked 5 times.This means that if you were to replace the 1,2 million baht GT200 devices with a 25 satang coin, the coin would be more accurate.

In a well ordered state the army officers involved in this fiasco would have been cashiered, and jailed.

[Locationthailand]

This will be zero significance when compared to the 2.2 Trillion PTP are about to divvy up. DSI has no control over anything and as for getting someone prosecuted...

[nevets]

These people make me sick and that goes for the same in the UK.

[EyesWideOpen]

Well let's see. According to the Wikipedia site, some GT 200s were bought for use in Africa. The stated price was $ 5000. Hmmmm. The stated Thai price was $ 27,000.So I guess that left

$ 22,000 in skim PER UNIT for the generals. Wow nice work if you can get...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT200

"The Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each and distributed them to the five LATF member states."

So I guess this means the generals will have to cough back some of their 22 million bucks to the NACC to make this quietly go away. I LOVE this place !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, don't single out the RTA only. The wiki article also lists the RTP and other organisations.

BTW in line with the 'police station' scandal which of course is to be blamed on Abhisit/Suthep, may I remind that the first GT200 units were ordered in 2004 under the PMship of our most popular criminal fugitive who is totally innocent of course as he didn't control the RTA in the same way as Abhisit/Suthep controlled the RTP

Congratulations.You have been nominated for the Sriracha John memorial prize for an irrelevant introduction of Thaksin into a topic.

If you are going to quote Wiki be honest about the fact that the RTA purchased the vast majority of this piece of junk.

Pornthip's record in this is appalling, and the fact she was on the committee that initially endorsed this crap raises some disturbing questions.

There is huge credit here for Khun Abhisit.At a press conference he arranged it was demonstrated that of 20 tests made the GT 200 worked only 4 times (using a double blind test).If it was pure random it should have worked 5 times.This means that if you were to replace the 1,2 million baht GT200 devices with a 25 satang coin, the coin would be more accurate.

In a well ordered state the army officers involved in this fiasco would have been cashiered, and jailed.

Yes I have often wondered how much Porntip got paid. Hopefully a fair amount in exchange for her entire reputation of honesty. She also seems to have faded away, has been a long time since I saw her in the news.

[rubl]

Well let's see. According to the Wikipedia site, some GT 200s were bought for use in Africa. The stated price was $ 5000. Hmmmm. The stated Thai price was $ 27,000.So I guess that left

$ 22,000 in skim PER UNIT for the generals. Wow nice work if you can get...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT200

"The Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each and distributed them to the five LATF member states."

So I guess this means the generals will have to cough back some of their 22 million bucks to the NACC to make this quietly go away. I LOVE this place !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, don't single out the RTA only. The wiki article also lists the RTP and other organisations.

BTW in line with the 'police station' scandal which of course is to be blamed on Abhisit/Suthep, may I remind that the first GT200 units were ordered in 2004 under the PMship of our most popular criminal fugitive who is totally innocent of course as he didn't control the RTA in the same way as Abhisit/Suthep controlled the RTP

Congratulations.You have been nominated for the Sriracha John memorial prize for an irrelevant introduction of Thaksin into a topic.

If you are going to quote Wiki be honest about the fact that the RTA purchased the vast majority of this piece of junk.

Pornthip's record in this is appalling, and the fact she was on the committee that initially endorsed this crap raises some disturbing questions.

There is huge credit here for Khun Abhisit.At a press conference he arranged it was demonstrated that of 20 tests made the GT 200 worked only 4 times (using a double blind test).If it was pure random it should have worked 5 times.This means that if you were to replace the 1,2 million baht GT200 devices with a 25 satang coin, the coin would be more accurate.

In a well ordered state the army officers involved in this fiasco would have been cashiered, and jailed.

With our criminal fugitive Robin Hood hero like Thaksin in an awful topics the last week, happily skyping around, it's nearly impossible not to mention him. I have to reject the price, with all possible respect I cannot in honesty accept it.

I dislike to suggestion I might not be honest. I quoted the complete paragraph regarding Thailand in 'current users'. I didn't say anything about numbers, only about users. I also didn't mention at least ten other organisations who might or might not be involved in the follow up on a purchase decision. Furthermore I omitted on purpose any reference to the weather at that time.

In a well ordered state, politicians wouldn't agree to a purchase without proper justifications including a valid audit. Here in Thailand too many times it seems politicians only encourage the purchase of items as long as they can profit as well. This is not saying some generals (RTA/RTP) may not be guilty, and a few government officials, and a few in various organisations overseeing things, and so on and so forth.

Now if only St. Thaksin the Just was back to bring us democracy

Edited March 20, 2013 by rubl

[LuckyLew]

is there anything in the country that does not need NACC scrutiny?

what a sorry state of affairs

[GentlemanJim]

It will be interesting to see what transpires, as the Crown Prosecution service have decided to investigate. I would not have thought any company in the UK so stupid to up the prices on request from 5k to 27k. What normally happens is that there is a middle man/marketing company for this kind of stuff. They do the deals with the UK company for 5k each and then do the deals with the Thai Government for 27k each, the middle man and end man then taking their ridiculous greedy profits. This often occurs without the knowledge of the supplier. Time will tell!

[slapout]

Jim, the amount of price increase on this boon doggle, would point to additional agents being involved. Think of the security devices at Swampy. This is assuming the total purchase of gizmos was a one time order via LC.

There is no honor nor trust among thieves, thus the need for additional agents to keep the amount each handles to a figure that is not a great tremptation for them to run and hide.with a personal fortune.

There will be dummy invoices, monies transfered, LC's issued, thru 3 or 4 fingers to keep everything confusing for all parties, including any tax owed/paid. But there is a paper trail and it is very trackable.

[harrycallahan]

They're upset because they didn't receive the promised steak knives?

[backtonormal]

The RTA has a rap sheet as long as an orang utangs arm. In the last decade their has been 2nd hand subs which they were told were no good for the Gulf of Thjailand, 2nd Hand Chinese tanks that were too heavy for the terrain, war planes that ended on the runaway in bits to keep the other flying. They increased ther own budget by at least 30,000,000 baht just before handing over to a civilian government.

It makes me wince when people keep cackling on about Thaksin. The army has been doing this for half a century with the the permission of the amaat (but if we need a coup you come and sort it out.) Why does any country need 2000 generals when they dont fight anybody. As the man Sae Daeng said my fellow officers are golfers and business men. It time to trim 1,970 generals from the books, and the same % reductions of officers below them, remove all military influence from the senate and politics, stop conscription unless you teach the boys a trade when they are in the army...and on and on. The army needs to be downsized by at least 75%

Have PTP got the stones to do it... After their next election win we may see some of the above

PS. Forgot...it also shoots its own unarmed civilians and foreign press personnel

Edited March 21, 2013 by backtonormal

[animatic]

Well let's see. According to the Wikipedia site, some GT 200s were bought for use in Africa. The stated price was $ 5000. Hmmmm. The stated Thai price was $ 27,000.So I guess that left

$ 22,000 in skim PER UNIT for the generals. Wow nice work if you can get...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT200

"The Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each and distributed them to the five LATF member states."

So I guess this means the generals will have to cough back some of their 22 million bucks to the NACC to make this quietly go away. I LOVE this place !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, don't single out the RTA only. The wiki article also lists the RTP and other organisations.

BTW in line with the 'police station' scandal which of course is to be blamed on Abhisit/Suthep, may I remind that the first GT200 units were ordered in 2004 under the PMship of our most popular criminal fugitive who is totally innocent of course as he didn't control the RTA in the same way as Abhisit/Suthep controlled the RTP

Congratulations.You have been nominated for the Sriracha John memorial prize for an irrelevant introduction of Thaksin into a topic.

If you are going to quote Wiki be honest about the fact that the RTA purchased the vast majority of this piece of junk.

Pornthip's record in this is appalling, and the fact she was on the committee that initially endorsed this crap raises some disturbing questions.

There is huge credit here for Khun Abhisit.At a press conference he arranged it was demonstrated that of 20 tests made the GT 200 worked only 4 times (using a double blind test).If it was pure random it should have worked 5 times.This means that if you were to replace the 1,2 million baht GT200 devices with a 25 satang coin, the coin would be more accurate.

In a well ordered state the army officers involved in this fiasco would have been cashiered, and jailed.

Yes I have often wondered how much Porntip got paid. Hopefully a fair amount in exchange for her entire reputation of honesty. She also seems to have faded away, has been a long time since I saw her in the news.

Maybe paid is not the issue for P. Pornip, but more 'threatened by a force even larger than her nerve/honesty'.

I would never be so foolish to imagine that there are NOT those with snouts in the trough, that are utterly without scruples, or lack the ability to threatened and follow through with almost anything, to protect their little games for profit. It's one thing to call out correct facts in court cases, and another to to defy a phalanx off pissed off general officers who's retirements are at risk..

Edited March 21, 2013 by animatic