A paddy-drying yard in Uttaradit province has to be rebuilt after the contractor used an inferior type of materials, saying it got a green light from a district chief.
The 3,600-square-metre yard is being built in Pa Juk subdistrict in Muang Uttaradit. The median price was 1.95 million baht (541 baht per sq m) but the contractor won the bid for 1.36 million (377 baht/sq m). The funds were sought by Somchai Munkhemthong, the Pa Juk subdistrict municipality chief, from the province's development budget.
While checking concrete mixture on Tuesday, Kannika Sornkamnerd, an engineer at the municipality administration, found cheaper river stones were used instead of rocks from mills as contractually specified. Since river stones do not bind as strongly with cement and sand, the life of the yard will be shorter.
The contractor told Ms Kannika that Muang district chief Sumit Kerdklum had allowed the company to use river stones so she reported the case to Mr Somchai, who in turn asked Mr Sumit to order a rebuilding.
Mr Sumit said he was not involved in any way with the contractor company but his name was frequently cited during construction bids. He insisted he would look into the issue and would ask the contractor to build the yard to specifications.