Auditor-General revives probe on bogus bomb detectors

[webfact]

Auditor-General revives probe on bogus bomb detectors
By Teeranai Charuvastra, Staff Reporter


Minister of Interior Affairs Chaovarat Chanweerakul, center, on Dec. 3, 2009, demonstrates the so-called "Alpha 6" narcotics detectors that were later exposed to be bogus.

BANGKOK — The Office of Auditor-General said he wanted to give it another try in the effort to hold the authorities accountable for wasting up millions of baht on bogus bomb detectors sold by a British conman.

Five years since it came to light that more than one billion baht was spent on fake devices, a renewed call to hold someone accountable has come days after a British court seized assets belonging to the Briton behind the international scam.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2016/06/20/auditor-general-revives-probe-bogus-bomb-detectors/

-- Khaosod English 2016-06-20

[webfact]

OAG to propose nation anti corruption centre to reinvestigate fraudulent bomb detector case

BANGKOK: -- The Office of the Auditor- General will propose the National Anti Corruption Centre to reinvestigate the controversial purchases of the GT200 fraudulent remote bomb detector so as to have the assets of those selling agents confiscated.

The move by the OAG came as the UK court last week ordered compensation be paid to affected countries from the forfeited assets of the convicted seller.

Auditor-general Pisit Leelavachiropas said today that the OAG will propose the national anti corruption centre to reinvestigate the case and bring the selling agents of the firm to justice.

This meant that the Anti Money Laundering Office will be asked to investigate the money trails of the distributing agents whose offices are still in Thailand, and seized all their assets for compensation.

He said there were several government agencies dealing with security matters and forensic science which had purchased these fraudulent detectors for use, and they had already filed complaints about the frauds.

He said now the OAG would like to go further into how much progress has been made after complaints have been lodged by these government agencies.

The national anti corruption centre will have to look into the matter and seek compensation from those selling agents, he said.

The newly established centre comprised heads of government agencies relevant to anti corruption, money laundering, auditing, special investigation, revenue, police, justice, attorney general, Council of State and foreign affairs as members of the anti corruption commission.

The centre is headed by the justice minister and he will report directly to the prime minister.

Source: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/category/politics/


-- Thai PBS 2016-06-20

[LostTourist]

I'm no expert on bomb detectors, but they look like arc welder hand pieces with a tungsten electrode attached.

Thai con men ripped off by a British con man, sounds like the Thais got a taste of their own medicine, I bet that left a nasty taste in their mouth

Edited June 20, 2016 by LostTourist

[shirtless]

At the time this sale went down there was a national shortage of brown paper bags.

[Hawk]

Yet another farce to add to all the new and up and coming farces. Sadly another lost cause which will go nowhere. How could they have been so stupid as to buy an empty plastic box with a radio antenna which supposedly could find anything from drugs to bombs, and even that forensic lady said they were okay and she has a university degree.

Remember the army purchased a second hand blimp that never flew.

The money that these morons throw away on mindless things is sickening, and they are trying to make out that this is a modern nation, when even the leader wears loads of amulets and believes in magic.

So what hope do the people have?

[BritTim]

Those that believe a threatened new probe is pointless show little appreciation of the way things work here. It is true that ultimately no one will be help accountable. However, getting to that point will involve various concessions from those who profited towards those doing the "investigating".

[bangkokfrog]

A waste of time. This will go nowhere since the army was one of the main purchasers... and we know that they can do no wrong!

[jybkk]

I remember when this news was hot.

The head of the forensic science department even vouched for the thing, completely misunderstanding the result of their own double blind test. It was really worrying.

Media didn't get the test either, despite the whole thing being high school level of science.

The test was basically 4 boxes in a big field. One of them with a charge of explosive. The 'bomb' operator had to use the device to figure out which box contained the explosive. They tested about a dozen times and the operators got it 'right' 20% of the time. That was actually LESS than pure chance (25%)

But somehow politicians and media concluded that it meant the device could still detect bombs in 20% of the cases, so that was better than not having anything. No, dummies! The 20% meant that this device doesn't do any better than just picking something randmly. It will never improve detection of bombs... and will probably instill a misplaced confidence when it doesn't detect a bomb that's actually there.

[smutcakes]

Why was the probe stalled anway?

I would really love to see the NACC/Auditor's selection criteria for which cases to fast track, which ones to stall, which ones to drop and suddenly which ones need to suddenly be revived after laying dormant for 7 years.

Complete and utter farce, and despite the 2 middlemen making nealy a billion baht out of the 1.4 billion spent according to the other paper, there names have never been released..... hmmm very mysterious.

Let me guess, and ex military person who has entered private practice?

[clockman]

Of course somebody from the military is involved!

[clockman]

Pakistan also bought them! Enough said?

[GAZZPA]

Did it not get tested? Surely before buying it must have gone through some sort of testing!

I wonder if it had some kind of noise built into it, like the tunes that play when you open a birthday card.

"Wooooooooo! I would loved to have been there at the ribbon cutting ceremony watching the officials waving this $20 piece of junk around whilst it makes a very convincing detection noise"

I have an advanced and cost effective communication device for the authorities, it works even when there is a power cut and no digital or analogue transmissions are possible, only 25,000 baht a piece...

Priceless!

[GAZZPA]

I remember when this news was hot.

The head of the forensic science department even vouched for the thing, completely misunderstanding the result of their own double blind test. It was really worrying.

Media didn't get the test either, despite the whole thing being high school level of science.

The test was basically 4 boxes in a big field. One of them with a charge of explosive. The 'bomb' operator had to use the device to figure out which box contained the explosive. They tested about a dozen times and the operators got it 'right' 20% of the time. That was actually LESS than pure chance (25%)

But somehow politicians and media concluded that it meant the device could still detect bombs in 20% of the cases, so that was better than not having anything. No, dummies! The 20% meant that this device doesn't do any better than just picking something randmly. It will never improve detection of bombs... and will probably instill a misplaced confidence when it doesn't detect a bomb that's actually there.

Oh, that is just brilliant. So even when a device is planted and they knew it was there it failed to detect it and the results were lower then the chance of pure guesswork. How, just how can it then be accepted by anyone older then 5 years old?

Couldn't make this up could you...

[Winniedapu]

Some good entertainment to be had here. I'll bet 1000thhb that nobody did anything dishonest. And and one more nail will be hammered into the coffin of Thailand's international reputation.

The last guy to publicly defend the purchase of the GT 2000 is none other than General Grumpy who said :the army is going to keep them because they work sometimes."

To people with a brain, that merits a paper train chase with Prayuth in mind. But this is Thailand. No wrong-doing will be found. Also needing investigation are Paochinda, who approved the most recent purchases, and that dreadful Pornthip - the one with the funny hair, who not only brought a bunch of them for her 'forensic' circus, but adamantly declared they worked well and had saved lives. This was after it was pointed out to her that the GT2000 was an empty box with a car aerial affixed.

TiT and it has codes of its own - they're collectively called 'Thainess'. Everyone else calls it dishonesty, corruption and thieving. Oddly enough, every single Thai I've ever spoken to about 'Thainess' says that not all Thais are the same, and that they're the exception. Every single one - I spoke to another one this very morning.

Winnie

[DGS1244]

After five years do they really think any 'money' will be found, it is long gone and away.

[Eric Loh]

Pointless and foolhardy to think the NACC will take up the case when one of the NCPO leader and deputy PM was involved and also in typical military fashion accused the press of sabotage. Sansern army spokesman boldly announced that the device was 100% reliable. This will no where and we all know that.

[Acharn]

The Army declared that these things worked, even though there are no working parts inside them, no power supply, and no theory to explain how they are supposed to work. Even Khunying Dr. Pornthip Rajanasunanda stated unequivocally that they work. They seem to be something like dowsing rods. Some people claim to get wonderful results from them, but when tested in an unbiased way they fail miserably. I don't know how many Southern Thais have been arrested because soldiers using these thing claimed to get a positive hit. I believe some generals had a little extra added to their retirement nest eggs. Still, Thailand isn't the only country that bought millions of dollars worth of these things. I think this was the detector that was used to check the luggage of that top cop who "accidentally" took a tiny gun to Japan.

[toybits]

3,..... 2,...... 1, ...... But, but, but TAKSIN???

[AlQaholic]

I have this new invention that prevents brain cancer due to High Frequency Electro-Magnetic waves from phones. It can also be used to charge your smartphone by connecting you phone to the hat, the hat will then convert the electromagnetic waves produced by your brain into electric current.

It will be available in Thailand soon....

Edited June 20, 2016 by AlQaholic

[worgeordie]

"a renewed call to hold someone accountable has come days after a British court seized assets belonging to the Briton behind the international scam."

They smell money,seized money, the only people who lost out on this,as usual was Thai taxpayers,the man that sold them and the people that bought

them did very nicely I am sure, then there's the matter of the people in the South that were convicted on the results of these useless devices,also those

that lost their lives,putting their trust in what was nothing more than a kids toy,an expensive one.

regards Worgeordie

[gandalf12]

It should be obvious to anyone that these were are still are a scam. Just looking at them and you can see they dont have the detection coverage to find small devices. There would have to be a cloud of the explosive substance before they would even move let alone detect anything

[off road pat]

I remember when this news was hot.

The head of the forensic science department even vouched for the thing, completely misunderstanding the result of their own double blind test. It was really worrying.

Media didn't get the test either, despite the whole thing being high school level of science.

The test was basically 4 boxes in a big field. One of them with a charge of explosive. The 'bomb' operator had to use the device to figure out which box contained the explosive. They tested about a dozen times and the operators got it 'right' 20% of the time. That was actually LESS than pure chance (25%)

But somehow politicians and media concluded that it meant the device could still detect bombs in 20% of the cases, so that was better than not having anything. No, dummies! The 20% meant that this device doesn't do any better than just picking something randmly. It will never improve detection of bombs... and will probably instill a misplaced confidence when it doesn't detect a bomb that's actually there.

Yes I remember,....but I think some big brown envelopes took the decision for them !!!

And I remember some western country's had those detectors to !!! the brown envelope comes back to mind ...?!?!?

Best regards

Edited June 20, 2016 by off road pat

[Artisi]

3,..... 2,...... 1, ...... But, but, but TAKSIN???

You started it, are you going to finish it?

[EyesWideOpen]

A waste of time. This will go nowhere since the army was one of the main purchasers... and we know that they can do no wrong!

Kind of what I was thinking. This was a massive money

maker for the military. The military is currently in charge. Why in

the world would would this old chestnut reemerge ???

Thailand really is amazing.....

[Snig27]

Noted that one of the generals who arrived in self-anointed power in 2014 with large amounts of unexplained wealth says "they work sometimes".

[tuanku]

As always with military hardware, what you buy is unimportant. It is the opportunity to siphon off some of the money changing hands which decides whether the purchase is worthwhile. By those standards I am sure this was an eminently worthwhile purchase.

[tx22cb]

Not only Pornthip, but the then Prime Minister defended the GT200 detector.

I was most disappointed, as that PM should have known better, being an Oxonian.

[phoenixdoglover]

Pointless and foolhardy to think the NACC will take up the case when one of the NCPO leader and deputy PM was involved and also in typical military fashion accused the press of sabotage. Sansern army spokesman boldly announced that the device was 100% reliable. This will no where and we all know that.

Exactly. And some people still think of the NACC as an "independent" body.

[Eric Loh]

Pointless and foolhardy to think the NACC will take up the case when one of the NCPO leader and deputy PM was involved and also in typical military fashion accused the press of sabotage. Sansern army spokesman boldly announced that the device was 100% reliable. This will no where and we all know that.

Exactly. And some people still think of the NACC as an "independent" body.

The PAD did coined the word junta puppet agency. Not my words.

[bangrak]

Pointless and foolhardy to think the NACC will take up the case when one of the NCPO leader and deputy PM was involved and also in typical military fashion accused the press of sabotage. Sansern army spokesman boldly announced that the device was 100% reliable. This will no where and we all know that.

For once, I agree with you, Khun Eric, and it has been so during the tenure of all 'elected' 'Governments' of Thailand, may I add...

Oh, but, in fact, which party and persons were holding power when this overly expensive unusable utter-crap 'gadget' was purchased, do you remember? And is the 'Government' not in charge of any such order/purchase, in first instance the Ministry of Defence here? Please, refresh my memory, give me their names, from which political party you said? Not that it changes anything to the matter itself, you know, but to 'relativate' a bit, and not to allow you to further incriminate anyone for just not belonging to 'the side' you single and always come up for...

Edited June 20, 2016 by bangrak