Suthep to face corruption charges

Suthep Thaugsuban is seen on the election campaign trail on March 1st, 2019. (Bangkok Post file photo)
Suthep Thaugsuban is seen on the election campaign trail on March 1st, 2019. (Bangkok Post file photo)

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has found grounds to charge former protest leader and ex-deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban and others in a case involving a police station construction project.

Mr Suthep is accused of violating the 1999 law on offering prices to state agencies, also known as the anti-price collusion law, a source at the anti-graft agency said.

Others also implicated in the case include former acting police chief Pol Gen Patheep Tanprasert, and members of project inspection committees in nine police regions.

The project to construct 396 police stations, worth 5.84 billion baht, was endorsed by the cabinet during the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration.

Mr Suthep, who was deputy prime minister at the time, was accused of not having consulted fellow ministers regarding changes made later to the project contract. He allegedly granted a private company the right to be sole contractor, instead of splitting among different companies.

Many of the police stations were left unfinished when the contractor allegedly abandoned the project.

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Vocabulary

  • abandon: to stop doing an activity before you have finished it - เลิก
  • cabinet: the group of government ministers who make and approve government policy - คณะรัฐมนตรี
  • collusion: secretly working together to do something dishonest - การสมรู้ร่วมคิด
  • consult: to ask for information or advice from someone - หารือ
  • contractor: a person or company whose job is to do work for another person, organisation, company, etc. - ผู้รับเหมา
  • endorse: to express support for something - แสดงความเห็นชอบ
  • graft: corruption - การฉ้อโกง
  • implicate: to show or suggest that someone is involved in something illegal or morally wrong   - โยงใยถึง, เกี่ยวพันกับ
  • sole: only - เดี่ยวๆ
  • violate: to do something that is against the law - ละเมิดกฏหมาย

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