POLITICS
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has denied any irregularities in the awarding of the flood-tunnel contract when he was Bangkok governor five years ago.
The prime minister was responding in his weekly broadcast yesterday to reports that an executive of the contractor Nishimatsu Construction admitted to Japanese prosecutors that the company gave more than 400 million yen (125 million baht) to ''Thai officials'' to win the tunnel contract.
Mr Samak said he could not remember the name of the company making the accusation because he approved a lot of projects during his term as governor.
''Ridiculous. The project was financed in baht, so why would the company pay bribes in yen?'' he said.
He said the Administrative Court had ruled the bidding for the contract was transparent after a Thai construction firm, Si Saeng Karn Yotah, accused the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration of collusion in awarding Nishimatsu Construction the project.
He said there were three competing bids for the project, which had a an estimated price of 2.178 billion baht. The winner quoted 2.155 billion baht for the construction cost, 23 million baht lower than the reference price.
The bidding committee then negotiated with the winner and the final cost was settled at 2.095 billion baht, 83 million baht lower than the median price.
''I ask you, if there was corruption, why did the committee negotiate a lower price when the contract could have been signed based on the initial quote, which was lower than the reference price,'' Mr Samak said.
He said he did not explain the matter last week because he did not trust the media and that 80% of the reports about him were distorted.
As a result, he waited to give the explanation during his live talk.
Democrat spokesman Ongart Klampaiboon said Mr Samak had tried to avoid the issue of the bribe. He had yet to say whether a bribe was paid or not.
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