A Move Forward Party (MFP) MP slammed the government over fraudulent GT200 bomb detectors, saying the former military leaders who approved the procurement of the devices over a decade ago, and who are now in power, must still be held accountable.
During the censure debate against the government on Thursday, Jirat Thongsuwan, an MP for Chachoengsao, took aim at Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon and Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda.
"It is now 13 years since the scandal came to light but one question remains unanswered. Who must be held responsible for the procurement of the devices?" the opposition MP said. "The fraudulent devices not only caused the country to lose billions of baht, but they were to blame for blast injuries among soldiers and civilians," Mr Jirat said. "Even though the distributor of the device was ordered by the Central Administrative Court last year to pay 683 million baht in compensation to the army, we cannot leave it at that. We must bring those who approved the procurement to justice."
He said that on March 28, prosecutors indicted 22 military officers at the Bangkok Military Court. They were accused of malfeasance in connection with the army's purchase of a total of 757 GT200 devices under 12 procurement contracts, worth more than 682 million baht.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) earlier found grounds for accusations against the 22 officers before forwarding the case to the prosecutors, Mr Jirat said.
"However, those involved in approving the procurement were not implicated in the case," he said.
Gen Anupong, who served as army chief at the time, approved the 12 procurement contracts while Gen Prayut, who then served as the army's chief of staff, was ordered to approve one of those contracts on behalf of Gen Anupong, Mr Jirat claimed. Gen Prawit, who served as defence minister at the time, also approved some procurement contracts, he said, adding the NACC have had these procurement contracts for more than 10 years.
"But the NACC did not bring charges against the defence minister or the army chief, who had the authority to approve the procurement at the time. Therefore, there was nothing the prosecutors could do about this," Mr Jirat said.
At least 15 state agencies were believed to have been duped into buying the bogus detectors worth more than 1.13 billion baht.