Opposition up in arms against govt on anti-flood projects

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BANGKOK, June 19 – The National Anti-Corruption Committee (NACC) will be asked to investigate alleged irregularities in the government’s recent auctions for the Bt350 billion water management projects, the opposition Democrat Party said today.

Atavit Suwannapakdee, spokesman of the Democrats’ shadow cabinet, said both nepotism and collusion in the bids which were only contested by a limited group of companies and breached NACC price appraisal regulations and Section 67 of the Constitution which requires assessing public opinion.

He said the petition will be submitted to the House Speaker to be forwarded to the NACC.

The government failed to keep its recent promise to Parliament on the rice pledging measures by cutting the state purchase price of paddy from Bt15,000 per tonne to Bt12,000 per tonne, he said.

The opposition party wants the government to eliminate corruption from the scheme, and not reduce the price, he said, insisting that the state has incurred losses of Bt260 billion from the scheme, starting from the 2011/2012 harvest season while the government gave conflicting figures. (MCOT online news)