Opposition chief whip Jurin Laksanavisit has warned against attempts to bribe MPs for their support of the government's 2-trillion-baht infrastructure borrowing bill.
Jurin: Wary of project sweeteners
Mr Jurin said yesterday reports were circulating that some MPs on the House committee scrutinising the borrowing bill had been offered a slice of the money in the form of budgets for their constituencies.
An opposition whip committee source said Mr Jurin was reacting to an informal suggestion made during deliberations by the House committee scrutinising the bill.
The source said some committee members tried to convince others to support the bill by proposing that every committee member, including those from the opposition parties, be allocated up to 100 million baht from the borrowed money for transport developments in their constituencies.
As there are about 30 members of the scrutiny committee, their additional projects would consume about 3 billion baht, the source said.
The source said this sum could come from the 17 billion baht saved on consultancy fees in the transport development scheme.
Mr Jurin apparently spoke out to discourage opposition MPs from being lobbied to support the bill, the source said.
Mr Jurin yesterday said Deputy House Speaker Charoen Chankomol planned to put the bill on top of the agenda at the House's next ordinary session in August, instead of the amnesty bills which were originally top priority.
He said this suggested the government was afraid the amnesty issue could lead to a political crisis and it would then lose its chance to pass the borrowing bill.
He said many parties were concerned about possible corruption in the 2-trillion-baht transport development scheme.
Mr Jurin said he was also gathering support from a quarter _ or 125 _ of MPs to back an impeachment of the whole cabinet for its 350-billion-baht water management scheme.
The opposition believes the scheme is unconstitutional.
He plans to file the impeachment motion in the next week.