Encyclopedia > Corruption in the Suvarnabhumi Airport project
Several allegation of corruption have been made regarding the construction of Suvarnabhumi Airport, a new international airport serving Bangkok, Thailand. These include allegations started in the 1970's, when the land for the airport was purchased during the dictatorship of Thanom Kittikachorn[1], and have extended to the current government of Thaksin Shinawatra, during which most of the construction has occurred. To date, no Thai government, police, or auditor-general investigation has shown any corruption in the project. Suvarnabhumi Airport (IATA: NBK, ICAO: VTBS) (Thai: ), also New Bangkok International Airport (NBIA) or Second Bangkok International Airport (SBIA) is the long-delayed new international airport serving Bangkok, Thailand. ...
The Bangkok Skytrain at sunset on Thanon Narathiwat Ratcha Nakharin with Empire Tower at the back. ...
Thanom Kittikachorn Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn (August 11, 1912 -June 16, 2004, Thai ถนอม กิตติขจร) was a Thai military leader and former prime minister of Thailand. ...
Thaksin Shinawatra (Thai: , IPA: [ ; born July 26, 1949), Thai politician, is the current caretaker prime minister of Thailand and the leader of the populist Thai Rak Thai party. ...
Overview
Weera Somkuamkit, Researcher, People's Network on Corruption has noted that "Someone got a big payoff just by laying down the sand. There's corruption in every airport project such as the car park, bidding on duty free shops, cooling system for the buildings and power generating system."[2] Weera Somkuamkit has yet made public any evidence supporting his claims.
Based on these and other allegations, the Opposition initiated a vote of no confidence debate against the Thaksin-government Transport Minister. The censure motion was not successful. Thaksin Shinawatra (Thai: , IPA: [ ; born July 26, 1949), Thai politician, is the current caretaker prime minister of Thailand and the leader of the populist Thai Rak Thai party. ...
Car park The airport contains 2 5-storey car park buildings with a combined capacity of 5,000 cars.
Two videos were released in which car park contractor Latthapol Kesakotin, in one video, claimed that he paid USD $250 million to Yaowaret Shinawatra (the Prime Minister's sister) to gain a contract to build and operate the airport car park, and another video in which he claimed he didn't pay anything to Yaowaret. He later publically denied that that he paid anything to Yaowaret.[2]
Bomb detectors 26 CTX 9000 DSi explosive detection x-ray baggage scanning devices were purchased from GE Invision with a total contract value of USD $65m.[3] In response to concerns from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that the 26 devices would not be sufficient, the equipment specifications were revised and another 20 devices were acquired. The new specifications also required modification of several other elements of the airport. The CTX 9000 model was selected by the airport primary contractor's design consultant, Cage Inc.[4] The choice was also endorsed by New Bangkok International Airport’s independent adviser, Quatrotec Inc. Ge or GE may stand for: Ge, a letter of Cyrillic alphabet Gaia, (Ge) short form Ge is also an American Indian tribe from Eastern and Southern Amazon General Electric (GE). ...
InVision Technologies, Inc. ...
IATA logo The International Air Transport Association is an international trade organization of airlines headquarted in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ...
Corruption was alleged in the purchase of the CTX bomb scanners.[2] Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the opposition Democrat Party, initiated an unsuccessful censure debate against Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit. The Opposition alleged that in November 2004, Suriya had known that Invision was under investigation by the US Department of Justice, and therefore would not be able to provide the bomb scanners according to schedule, and despite this knowledge, had approved of payments for the bomb scanners to the airport contractor (the ITO consortium) and bomb-scanner sub-contractor (Patriot Business Consultants).[5] The Opposition claimed that THB 1 billion (USD $25 million) could have been saved if the bomb scanners were purchased directly from GE InVision rather than going through the two local contractors. The Opposition did not win the censure motion, and subsequent investigations cleared Suriya Jungrungreangkit of any wrongdoing.[6] The scandal delayed the opening of Suvarnabhumi Airport by over a year. This article is part of or related to the Liberalism series Categories: Politics stubs | Liberal related stubs | Liberal parties | Thai political parties ...
Censure is a process by which a formal reprimand is issued to an individual by an authoritative body. ...
Suriya Jungrungreangkit (born December 10, 1954, Thai: สุริยะ จึงรุ่งเรืองกิจ) is a Thai politician of the Thai Rak Thai party. ...
Invision may refer to one of the following. ...
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. ...
Suriya Jungrungreangkit (born December 10, 1954, Thai: สุริยะ จึงรุ่งเรืองกิจ) is a Thai politician of the Thai Rak Thai party. ...
Suvarnabhumi City In October 2005, the government of Thaksin Shinawatra floated a proposal to combine several districts around Suvarnabhumi Airport into a new province, to be managed as a special administration zone.[7] These districts would include Samut Prakan's Bang Sao Thong sub-district and Bang Phli district as well as Lat Krabang and Prawet districts of Bangkok. The new province would allow speedier large scale investments in infrastructure by enabling the government to bypass administrative and budgetary constraints for the estimated THB 500 billion (USD $12.5 billion) in public and private sector. The new zone, to be known as "Nakhon Suvarnabhumi" (Suvarnabhumi City) would cover 521 square kilometres (roughly the size of Singapore) and is currently home to about 462,000 people. In 2006 the Cabinet approved in principle a draft Nakhon Suvarnabhumi Bill prepared by the Interior Ministry. The Council of State will then review it, followed by a series of public hearings, before the bill is submitted to the House of Representatives. Thaksin Shinawatra (Thai: , IPA: [ ; born July 26, 1949), Thai politician, is the current caretaker prime minister of Thailand and the leader of the populist Thai Rak Thai party. ...
Nakhon Suvarnabhumi (Thai นครสุวรรณภูมิ) is a proposed new province of Thailand in the southeast of Bangkok around the new Bangkok airport. ...
Nakhon Suvarnabhumi (Thai นครสุวรรณภูมิ) is a proposed new province of Thailand in the southeast of Bangkok around the new Bangkok airport. ...
There were allegations that the proposed establishment of the new zone would cause property values to increase, and that government politicians had bought large plots of land in speculation.[8] An anonymous source noted to The Nation newspaper that "My friend told me that a politician's wife had bought 4,000 rai from a developer... The transaction was wrapped up in the first quarter of this year [2006]." The source also noted that prominent developers like Land & Houses, Quality Houses, Property Perfect, Supalai, LPN Develop-ment, SC Asset Corp, as well as the Jungrungreangkit and Mahagitsiri families owned large tranches in the proposed zone. Several developers denied that their ownership of land was related in any way to the proposal and noted that the properties were bought years before.
References - ^ New airport, new province, new government HQ?
- ^ a b c Channel NewsAsia, Corruption scandals delay Thailand's massive Suvarnabhumi Airport", 23 August 2005
- ^ AirportTechnology.com, Suvarnabhumi Airport
- ^ The Nation, "Suvarnabhumi: Contractor warns over airport delay", 7 May 2005
- ^ Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Opposition grills Thai government over airport scandal, 25 June 2006
- ^ The Bangkok Post, More To Come, 14 June 2005
- ^ Institute for Public Policy Studies Democracy Monitor, Suvanabhumi Metropolis
- ^ The Nation, City plan could see prices double, 26 June 2006
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