House members and staff are planning to hold a celebration to mark the completion of the Sappaya-Sapasathan, the new parliament of Thailand, on Constitution Day or Dec 10, said Deputy House Speaker Padipat Santiphada on Friday.
He said the building is almost 100% complete and an audit committee will hold a meeting on Monday to check the status of the project.
If they approve, the handover event will take place around the end of this month, he said. If all goes to plan, the celebration will go ahead on Dec 10, and the new parliament will have a two-year warranty from that date.
Parliament members will hold various activities including photography contests, an open house allowing people to explore the building and even a public gathering which is a right under the constitution. Further details of the event will be disclosed on Sept 27, he said.
The Sappaya-Sapasathan will be the new meeting place of the Senate and House of Representatives. It sits on a 424,000 m² area on Kiakkai Road along the Chao Phraya River in Dusit district. It can accommodate more than 5,000 people and also has museums, a convention centre, seminar rooms and a banquet hall. The cost of the construction is about 2.2 billion baht.
Mr Padipat said many petitions have been filed to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) about corruption during the project and an investigation is underway.
Meanwhile, former Democrat MP Watchara Phetthong sent a letter to House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, opposing receiving the building. Mr Watchara said construction has yet to be completed. Some materials are subpar or do not follow the requirements stipulated in the contracts such as sizes of trees and types of wooden floor.
The construction company failed to install fibre cement sheets in the walls of every House Commission meeting room, he said, and also asked whether the contractors had been fined at the agreed rate of 12.2 million baht per day for the handover delay.
He had also submitted a petition to the NACC and the State Audit Office, he said. He had also urged Mr Wan to send MP observers to join the meeting on Monday.