The Transport Ministry is confident the evidence it submitted which highlighted 20 irregularities in a railway project that was scrapped two decades ago will spare it from having to pay the hefty compensation to Hopewell as ordered by the Supreme Court.
"We have found the contract should have been nullified from the very beginning, which means the government is not bound to pay a single baht in compensation," said a source in the Transport Ministry.
Earlier in April, the Supreme Court ordered the Transport Ministry and the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) to pay Hopewell 25 billion baht in compensation -- made up of 11.8 billion baht in principal plus 7.5% in annual interest -- for wrongfully terminating the contract they signed with the company to build a 60-kilometre-long elevated highway and rail tracks across northern Bangkok in 1998.
The source told the Bangkok Post the Transport Ministry has decided to ask the Administrative Court to look into these irregularities, after its latest round of negotiations with Hopewell hit a dead end.
On Oct 18, the source said, the ministry had planned to submit the request, but the plan was postponed after Hopewell contacted them for another round of negotiation. The source said the court will be asked to rule on whether Hopewell's shareholder composition met the requirements laid out by Thai laws.