Phuket underpass road-safety complaints spur Ombudsman inspection, confirms B200mn fine

Tanyaluk Sakoot

 

Phuket Highways Office Project Engineer Chalermpon Wongkietkun (left) explains details of the Sam Kong Underpass construction project with Raksagecha Chaechai, Secretary-General of Office of the Ombudsman of Thailand.

 

PHUKET: -- Complaints over the dangerous state of the roads at and around the Sam Kong Underpass spurred Raksagecha Chaechai, Secretary-General of Office of the Ombudsman of Thailand, to inspect the Phuket construction site first-hand on Tuesday (Sept 27).

 

While conducting his inspection, Ombudsman Raksagecha confirmed that the contractor had accepted to pay B200 million as a fine for completing the project more than 20 months past the original deadline.

 

“I have come down here again because of I have received many complaints from people reporting that . the construction made it dangerous to drive on the roads,” he said.

 

Mr Raksagecha pointed out that this was his third inspection of the underpass site. “I came down here to inspect this project in January, in April and now September,” he said.

 

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-underpass-road-safety-complaints-spur-ombudsman-inspection-confirms-b200mn-fine-59277.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2016-09-29

The ever changing, finishing date has now gone from 15 Oct to the end of Oct, according to the Ombudsman.

 

Fines for late finishing, total 200 million baht he said.

I had previously worked out they would be north of 450 million according to the scale they gave some time ago. I guess everything is negotiable here.

And i will come down here and inspect again next year January. 

6 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

The ever changing, finishing date has now gone from 15 Oct to the end of Oct, according to the Ombudsman.

 

Fines for late finishing, total 200 million baht he said.

I had previously worked out they would be north of 450 million according to the scale they gave some time ago. I guess everything is negotiable here.

 

Yes, from the original "fine" of 2 million per day to this negotiated settlement.  I wonder how much will actually be paid and to whom it will be paid. I can see a payout to multiple parties here.

24 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

The ever changing, finishing date has now gone from 15 Oct to the end of Oct, according to the Ombudsman.

 

Fines for late finishing, total 200 million baht he said.

I had previously worked out they would be north of 450 million according to the scale they gave some time ago. I guess everything is negotiable here.

Take off weekends, public holidays, lottery days, rainy days, days when it's too hot, brown envelope delivery days; that amount soon comes down. 

1 hour ago, madmitch said:

Take off weekends, public holidays, lottery days, rainy days, days when it's too hot, brown envelope delivery days; that amount soon comes down. 

 

Just said much the same to my wife this morning's walk when we discuss local and international news.  Makes the walk pass by so much quicker.

I do hope they didn't pay the company up front- would be interesting trying to claw back the money. They got off very lightly with a B200m fine- they should be barred from any further public construction contracts

 

Inept doesn't even begin to sum up this debacle. Funny how the Ombudsman expects people to be sympathetic.

13 minutes ago, Psimbo said:

I do hope they didn't pay the company up front- would be interesting trying to claw back the money. They got off very lightly with a B200m fine- they should be barred from any further public construction contracts

 

Inept doesn't even begin to sum up this debacle. Funny how the Ombudsman expects people to be sympathetic.

They could always take it from the Chalong Underpass contract payment, though how they'll collect the fines for that one I don't know! That's about ten months into the project and they haven't even acquired the land, let alone start digging!

4 hours ago, steelepulse said:

 

Yes, from the original "fine" of 2 million per day to this negotiated settlement.  I wonder how much will actually be paid and to whom it will be paid. I can see a payout to multiple parties here.

 

4 hours ago, madmitch said:

Take off weekends, public holidays, lottery days, rainy days, days when it's too hot, brown envelope delivery days; that amount soon comes down. 

I agree 100% with the reasons for the delay.

Just think about it. Before they started, there were no Public holidays, someone created them only after they started the underpass.

Same for the rain. For centuries Phuket had a desert climate, it rained only maybe every 5 years. They started the underpass and it started raining a few months per year. Not fair, oh hang on, its the fault of the world wide climate change.

Its "Mai pen rai" all over again!

Sarcastic baiting post has been removed