NCPO dusts off Thai police station construction project

[webfact]

NCPO dusts off police station construction project

BANGKOK, 25 June 2014 (NNT) – The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has decided to breathe new life into the long-abandoned police station construction project, with the work on 181 stations to be carried out immediately.

Deputy Army Spokesman Col Winthai Suwaree stated that the NCPO had agreed to a proposal from the Royal Thai Police to proceed with the unfinished construction of 396 police stations across the country. As requested, the budget of the project was increased from 6.67 billion baht to 8.36 billion. About 1.5 billion baht had already been disbursed to the project so far.

Out of the total budget, the NCPO is set to promptly spend 2.46 billion baht to build 181 stations that are deemed important and are urgently needed. Another amount of over 4 billion baht for the construction of the remaining 215 stations will be allocated from the 2015 budget.

In regard to corrupt practices that caused the project to be stalled for years, Col Winthai said the Department of Special Investigation would continue to investigate the issue in order to prosecute those responsible.


-- NNT 2014-06-25

[terryp]

what about police REFORM first ...not more ivory collection towers

[smutcakes]

I would of thought pushing for a resolution of what happened first time round might be the priority before awarding another 1.5 billion baht.

It has been under investigation for 3-4 years or so, and with only one contractor involved i would of thought would be relatively easy to get a good idea of what had happened. Perhaps the junta should have a word with PCC the contractor to see if they are willing to talk.

According to the other paper,a certain Suthep was fairly involved in this, so perhaps the junta who no doubt are due a talk with him, could perhaps start making him sing.

[rubl]

I would of thought pushing for a resolution of what happened first time round might be the priority before awarding another 1.5 billion baht.

It has been under investigation for 3-4 years or so, and with only one contractor involved i would of thought would be relatively easy to get a good idea of what had happened. Perhaps the junta should have a word with PCC the contractor to see if they are willing to talk.

According to the other paper,a certain Suthep was fairly involved in this, so perhaps the junta who no doubt are due a talk with him, could perhaps start making him sing.

The BangkokPost mentions that the contract to PCC was awarded by ex-Dept. PM Suthep in 2010 as he oversaw the police then. It was implemented further under the Yingluck Administration.

Not much there really and we know the 'control' the Abhisit government had over the police in 2010.

Anyway before speculating more maybe re-read some of the info posted last year

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/656480-thailand-live-saturday-27-jul-2013/#entry6653185

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/674651-fraud-charges-dropped-against-firm-hired-to-build-thai-police-stations/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/675146-dsi-presses-for-prosecution-of-firm-in-thai-police-station-fiasco/

[smutcakes]

Seems like this story has now been removed from the other paper..............

[webfact]

NCPO gives nod to police station construction project



BANGKOK: -- The National Council for Peace and Order today gave a greenlight to the National Police Office’s multi-billion baht project to build 396 police stations throughout the country which has been held up for a couple of years due to suspected corruption.

Altogether about 1.5 billion baht has been spent in the construction of several police stations before the entire project was suspended pending investigation of suspected graft.

With the NCPO’s endorsement, construction of the first 181 police stations will go ahead with 2.5 billion baht fund accumulated since 2009 budgetary year.
Additional budget will be allocated later on for the construction of the rest of the police stations.

NCPO deputy spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvaree said that implementation of the project was a different issue from the suspected corruption which was being investigated by the Department of Special Investigation.

(pic : file photo)

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/ncpo-gives-nod-police-station-construction-project/


-- Thai PBS 2014-06-25

[chainarong]

There seems to be some area's in the construction phase which require looking at , the question is why the delay's and why so much time , you are looking at a time span covering the Democrats in power, then the PTP, another investigation is required.

[clockman]

More jails is required, and staff. This should be a priority.

[Hawk]

Police chiefs to receive more money for luxury cars, and other private projects!

[SNGLIFE]

There are a lot of apparently good works initiated by the junta. However, they all cost money. Being able to just say, "Make it so!" is nice and all, but sooner or later there is going to be a fiscal reckoning...mark my words...

Where is all the money suddenly coming from? Other projects, borrowing, or they are printing it up? In any case, the reckoning is going to manifest at some point...

[HuaHinHim]

While I agree that Thai law enforcers need reforming (badly), they also should have proper equipment to function and part of that are police stations, can't expect them to work out of a chook shed

[fab4]

I would of thought pushing for a resolution of what happened first time round might be the priority before awarding another 1.5 billion baht.

It has been under investigation for 3-4 years or so, and with only one contractor involved i would of thought would be relatively easy to get a good idea of what had happened. Perhaps the junta should have a word with PCC the contractor to see if they are willing to talk.

According to the other paper,a certain Suthep was fairly involved in this, so perhaps the junta who no doubt are due a talk with him, could perhaps start making him sing.

The BangkokPost mentions that the contract to PCC was awarded by ex-Dept. PM Suthep in 2010 as he oversaw the police then. It was implemented further under the Yingluck Administration.

Not much there really and we know the 'control' the Abhisit government had over the police in 2010.

Anyway before speculating more maybe re-read some of the info posted last year

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/656480-thailand-live-saturday-27-jul-2013/#entry6653185

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/674651-fraud-charges-dropped-against-firm-hired-to-build-thai-police-stations/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/675146-dsi-presses-for-prosecution-of-firm-in-thai-police-station-fiasco/

Yes it's curious that Tharit was chasing this down and then backed off, when all along it should have been the NACC doing the chasing. Obviously the hounding of Yingluck was deemed more important than this scandal by the NACC or was it because she was not associated with the right (eous) people?

The Pheu Thai party will demand the National Anti-Corruption Commission to speed up investigation into seven cases against the Democrats that the party claimed has been dragging on far too long.

Mr Prompong Nopparit, the party’s spokesman, said today that some of the cases dated back to 2010 and there has been no progress at all.

The cases include the fatal crackdown of red-shirt protesters in 2010 in which former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajjiva and former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban were held accountable; the scandal over the construction of 396 police stations throughout the country; corruption in the rubber price support scheme; shutdown of satellite signal during the crackdown of red-shirt protesters in 2010 resulting to the shutdown of 36 domestic and 15 foreign websites.

While there is no progress about these cases, Prompong said the NACC was unusually fast in wrapping up the rice pledging corruption case against caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/pheu-thai-demand-nacc-probe-seven-cases-democrats/

Apparently the DSI had sent the report on the scandal to the NACC for investigation on Mar 5th 2013

http://soclaimon.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/dsi-report-on-abhisit-suthep-to-nacc/

Strangely, nothing more has been heard from the NACC on the evidence they were provided with.

Edited June 25, 2014 by fab4

[Just1Voice]

There are a lot of apparently good works initiated by the junta. However, they all cost money. Being able to just say, "Make it so!" is nice and all, but sooner or later there is going to be a fiscal reckoning...mark my words...

Where is all the money suddenly coming from? Other projects, borrowing, or they are printing it up? In any case, the reckoning is going to manifest at some point...

That's been one of my questions as well. To pay the farmers, the banks that wouldn't give a stang to Yinkluck, were suddenly lining up the throw money at the junta. Curious. But like you, I'm wondering where the money for these other projects will come from. The article mentioned that the budget has already been approved in prior budget disbursements, but some of those have been gutted and plundered already, especially the police station project when Suthep was involved. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[robblok]

@fab4

Just remember whos lapdog Tharit was, so who do you think he protects.

As for the NACC if your budget get slashed by 60% (presumably by a party that thinks corruption is ok) you can't take all the cases you want too. 60% slash of budget.. that is unheard of, you only do that when you want to cripple an organisation. Guess who did the slashing of the budget.

But whoever is behind the corruption get them I don't care much ANY corrupt official has to be caught no matter what political preference he or she has.

[GarryP]

Could it be that they are treating the corruption matter separately and this is an exercise in buying the goodwill of the Royal Thai Police.

In any case, if Suthep was involved with the police station fiasco, he needs to be brought to task for it by the NCPO or whoever they assign to investigate it. No more brushing under the carpet or delaying tactics for anyone, regardless of colour, connections, or embarrassment.

[GarryP]

@fab4

Just remember whos lapdog Tharit was, so who do you think he protects.

As for the NACC if your budget get slashed by 60% (presumably by a party that thinks corruption is ok) you can't take all the cases you want too. 60% slash of budget.. that is unheard of, you only do that when you want to cripple an organisation. Guess who did the slashing of the budget.

But whoever is behind the corruption get them I don't care much ANY corrupt official has to be caught no matter what political preference he or she has.

The cutting of budget cannot be used as an excuse for cherry-picking those cases the NACC wished to pursue.

As for Tharit, words escape me. Hireling, perhaps, or mercenary.

[robblok]

@fab4

Just remember whos lapdog Tharit was, so who do you think he protects.

As for the NACC if your budget get slashed by 60% (presumably by a party that thinks corruption is ok) you can't take all the cases you want too. 60% slash of budget.. that is unheard of, you only do that when you want to cripple an organisation. Guess who did the slashing of the budget.

But whoever is behind the corruption get them I don't care much ANY corrupt official has to be caught no matter what political preference he or she has.

The cutting of budget cannot be used as an excuse for cherry-picking those cases the NACC wished to pursue.

As for Tharit, words escape me. Hireling, perhaps, or mercenary.

Maybe not.. but its understandable. They should go after it all but when there is no money its better to go after the one that slashed your budget so you cant function at all.

In a perfect world they should have gone after it all I agree.

[fab4]

@fab4

Just remember whos lapdog Tharit was, so who do you think he protects.

As for the NACC if your budget get slashed by 60% (presumably by a party that thinks corruption is ok) you can't take all the cases you want too. 60% slash of budget.. that is unheard of, you only do that when you want to cripple an organisation. Guess who did the slashing of the budget.

But whoever is behind the corruption get them I don't care much ANY corrupt official has to be caught no matter what political preference he or she has.

Well the word is that the police Chief demanded an apology from Tharit for poking his nose in - see the Bangkok Post for more in depth coverage than you would get from The Nation - the BP being merely the lesser of two evils in the English Language media world.

As far as the budget for the NACC goes, 60% cut of budget? That appears to have come from this statement;

"Sirilaksana Khoman, the NACC’s chairwoman for the prevention of economic sector corruption, said the agency’s budget has been cut by 60% from 1 billion baht in previous years." ( http://tdri.or.th/en/tdri-insight/tdri-slams-states-lack-of-public-information/ )

So in the years previous to 2014 (the article linked is dated March 2014) the NACC's budget was 1 Billion Baht.

But in the 2014 Budget the NACC budget was cut from 1.5 Billion Baht to 1.3 Billion Baht. Of course the Dems and their friends in the Senate had to state that the budget was unconstitutional, and asked the Constitutional Court for a ruling on the budget. This they did, and found the budget constitutional.

On September 5, a petition signed by 115 MPs and senators was submitted to the Parliament president asking for the Constitutional Court to issue a ruling on whether the 2014 budget bill violates the charter.

The petition was initiated by appointed Senator Paiboon Nititawan and Songkhla Democrat MP Wirat Kalayasiri.

In the petition, they argued that the House’s ad hoc committee to alter the bill did not consult with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) or any court, including the Administrative Court, before cutting their budgets.

The panel had decided unilaterally to cut the proposed budget of courts and independent agencies. Originally, the 2014 budget allotted to the courts of justice was Bt18.7 billion, including Bt2.2 billion for the Administrative Court and Bt1.5 billion to the NACC. The committee later altered the figures to Bt14.5 billion, Bt2 billion and Bt1.3 billion respectively.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Budget-bill-constitutional-Court-30216299.html

Therefore the NACC budget for 2014 although it has been cut to 1.3 Billion Baht it is still an increase on the 1 Billion baht Budget the NACC Chairwoman said was cut by 60%. An excuse for not being able to investigate any of the Dems scandals, a crippled NACC, don't make me laugh.

[lostmebike]

'In regard to corrupt practices that caused the project to be stalled for years, Col Winthai said the Department of Special Investigation would continue to investigate the issue ... just as soon as they'd finished counting some cash! hahaha

[IAMSOBAD]

Instead of new police stations...WHY NOT... new police? And new uniforms with light shirts and short pants.Make them all look like bike patrol police and require them to stay out of the box and do their jobs. No drinking while in uniform.

Just a thought

Edited June 25, 2014 by IAMSOBAD

[BestBitterPhuket]

There are a lot of apparently good works initiated by the junta. However, they all cost money. Being able to just say, "Make it so!" is nice and all, but sooner or later there is going to be a fiscal reckoning...mark my words...

Where is all the money suddenly coming from? Other projects, borrowing, or they are printing it up? In any case, the reckoning is going to manifest at some point...

If they can spend on justifiable and sound infrastructure projects that will enhance Thailand's future earning potential, it is money well spent, and even more so if they can eliminate the 30-40% of the infrastructure spendings wasted on corruption, fraud and theft within the projects.

[jayjayjayjay]

@fab4

Just remember whos lapdog Tharit was, so who do you think he protects.

As for the NACC if your budget get slashed by 60% (presumably by a party that thinks corruption is ok) you can't take all the cases you want too. 60% slash of budget.. that is unheard of, you only do that when you want to cripple an organisation. Guess who did the slashing of the budget.

But whoever is behind the corruption get them I don't care much ANY corrupt official has to be caught no matter what political preference he or she has.

Well the word is that the police Chief demanded an apology from Tharit for poking his nose in - see the Bangkok Post for more in depth coverage than you would get from The Nation - the BP being merely the lesser of two evils in the English Language media world.

As far as the budget for the NACC goes, 60% cut of budget? That appears to have come from this statement;

"Sirilaksana Khoman, the NACCs chairwoman for the prevention of economic sector corruption, said the agencys budget has been cut by 60% from 1 billion baht in previous years." ( http://tdri.or.th/en/tdri-insight/tdri-slams-states-lack-of-public-information/ )

So in the years previous to 2014 (the article linked is dated March 2014) the NACC's budget was 1 Billion Baht.

But in the 2014 Budget the NACC budget was cut from 1.5 Billion Baht to 1.3 Billion Baht. Of course the Dems and their friends in the Senate had to state that the budget was unconstitutional, and asked the Constitutional Court for a ruling on the budget. This they did, and found the budget constitutional.

On September 5, a petition signed by 115 MPs and senators was submitted to the Parliament president asking for the Constitutional Court to issue a ruling on whether the 2014 budget bill violates the charter.

The petition was initiated by appointed Senator Paiboon Nititawan and Songkhla Democrat MP Wirat Kalayasiri.

In the petition, they argued that the Houses ad hoc committee to alter the bill did not consult with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) or any court, including the Administrative Court, before cutting their budgets.

The panel had decided unilaterally to cut the proposed budget of courts and independent agencies. Originally, the 2014 budget allotted to the courts of justice was Bt18.7 billion, including Bt2.2 billion for the Administrative Court and Bt1.5 billion to the NACC. The committee later altered the figures to Bt14.5 billion, Bt2 billion and Bt1.3 billion respectively.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Budget-bill-constitutional-Court-30216299.html

Therefore the NACC budget for 2014 although it has been cut to 1.3 Billion Baht it is still an increase on the 1 Billion baht Budget the NACC Chairwoman said was cut by 60%. An excuse for not being able to investigate any of the Dems scandals, a crippled NACC, don't make me laugh.

I honestly thought "dusting off" insinuated that NAPO would be investigating wrong doing. How stupid can I be. As with the 2006 coup detat, up the <deleted> budget a few billion, and get the ball rolling so the Dems have plenty of cash for vote buying in next years election. They spend more on vote buying than PTT coz as everybody knows, nobody except southerners and Bangkokian like them coz Aphisit could not organise a root in a brothel!!!!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

None of the news report articles on this posted above seem to say what contractor or contractors are going to be used for this renewed construction project...

The same outfit as was originally suspected of fraud and unbuilt projects.... Or perhaps someone else's business(es)??? Be interesting to know...

[Just1Voice]

If Suthep was involved in the original plans, there definitely needs to be an investigation.

[ableguy]

There are a lot of apparently good works initiated by the junta. However, they all cost money. Being able to just say, "Make it so!" is nice and all, but sooner or later there is going to be a fiscal reckoning...mark my words...

Where is all the money suddenly coming from? Other projects, borrowing, or they are printing it up? In any case, the reckoning is going to manifest at some point...

If a third of the budget is no longer going to be stolen every year there is your answer.

[hawker9000]

I was really hoping this was going to be about "cleaning house" rather than rebuilding them... They could've started with Thonglor.

[Emster23]

Probably need more interrogation rooms and solitary confinement cells. Why don't they just adapt some of the "black sites" CIA funded?

[belg]

let the police pay for their own building, they collect tax from motorists and businesses

or they can impound the buildings that are home to so many illegal casino's

[Rimmer]

An inflammatory post and the quoted replies to it have been removed

[Brian Corrigan]

I take it the previous contractor will be invited to finish the job and pocket the extra cash? Lets keep up the transparency hey.Maybe Suthep could help with the investigation?