The Ministry of Science and Technology's procurement of the 7.8-billion-baht THEOS-2, an earth-observing satellite, is all above board, according to a special committee responsible for probing an allegation of conflict of interest surrounding the project.
The committee's head, Hiran Radeesri, said Thursday his panel examined the allegation in detail by focusing on four issues.
The first concerns how the bidders were appraised and given marks. The second relates to the procedures adopted by the selection committee. The others cover changes in the satellite's orbit and a potential conflict of interest.
Mr Hiran stressed bidder appraisals and scoring were done in line with the stipulated criteria, based on the Instructions To Bidders (ITB). The selection committee was also duty-bound to comply with the procurement rules stipulated by the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Gistda), he added.
In any grey areas, the committee sought approval from Gistda's board, he said, adding all of the steps appear to have been legitimately approved.
Moreover, the ITB stipulates the satellite must be an inclined orbit type, not the equatorial orbit type, as alleged, he said. Accordingly, no change was made to the specification regarding its orbit.
Mr Hiran said Airbus Defence and Space SAS, which won the bid, made it clear from the beginning it wanted to supply a satellite with a sun synchronous orbit (SSO), which travels from North to South poles. This is also known as the Polar Orbit.
The selection committee accepted that decision, he said.
Referring to the conflict of interest claim, he said Surrey Satellite Technology (UK), a subsidiary of Airbus Defense, confirmed by letter it has no connection with Andy Witts, who an alleged advisor to Gistda.
Scepticism over the project flared up in July when NGO graftbusters invited to help monitor the bid resigned citing irregularities they flagged that Gistda ignored.