SRT responds to queries on its five dual railway projects

 

BANGKOK, 27th February 2017 (NNT) – The interim head of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has confirmed progress is being made in bidding for five dual rail projects and that the office is ready to act on any indications of irregularity flagged by the new purchasing commission. 

Deputy Director-General of the Department of Highways and interim SRT Governor Anond Luangboriboon, was responding to queries on why the latest five dual railway projects of the SRT are being auctioned as complete undertakings rather than being divided into portions, saying that the new approach is based on lessons learnt in the past by the authority. He explained that railways differ in their construction from highways and need to be done in a unified manner as each section impacts on the others. 

On questions of the SRT’s pricing of materials, which were deemed too high, Anond said the authority worked with a consultancy firm to decide the appropriate price and had the figure vetted by a commission. Nevertheless, he gave an assurance that if the programs are called out by the government’s new Super Board, the SRT will be ready to act in response.

 

-- nnt 2017-02-27

This guy is really top of the class when it comes to stupidity, must have been handpicked by the General.  He states " He explained that railways differ in their construction from highways and need to be done in a unified manner as each section impacts on the others"

 

So lets build say and expressway across a river in a non unified manner ( as he deems it different from a railway) completing the  land sections first and then we will undertake the bridge construction at a later date.  We will then get this moron to get in his car and drive along both sections without diversion.  I suspect that when he drives his car( bet it will be a Mercedes Benz for him) into the river,  he is scrambling to get out he may think of his absurd statement about  roads able to be built in a non unified manner.

The first thing he appears to mention, is about corruption and transparency....which seems to suggest that he's clean.......in this story at least.

But we must remember that he has been appointed from the same batch that all come from......

He'll be unusually wealthy very soon...if not already

5 hours ago, webfact said:

On questions of the SRT’s pricing of materials, which were deemed too high,

High?? Everybody wants a cut. 

Overall, the SRT governor was removed for potential procurement irregularities. Since Article 44 was used one might imagine that legal removal under the law probably wasn't merited, at least not quickly. But the new governor and super board found no such issues. SRT pricing of materials was vetted by a consulting firm and a commission - more effort than put forward by the new governor.

 

What is suspicious is that the new governor changed the procurement process that combines all the five projects into one mega project "based on lessons learnt in the past by the authority." Yet it would have been the expelled governor as the authority who would have learnt those lessons if they were meaningful.

 

The new governor should have said the lessons (ie., doing the projects piecemeal) were NOT learnt in the past by the authority. So the excuse seems fabricated. For what purpose? Maybe now only very large contractors can competitively bid the mega project that might limit the number of bidders and open potential collusion.