Thai PM assures transparency of flood prevention projects

BANGKOK, August 14 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has assured transparency of flood prevention projects in the country, insisting that her government will not favor any particular contractor. Yingluck affirmed on Tuesday that her government will choose the best flood prevention solutions and publicly present details of the selected projects on authorized websites. Meanwhile, the Thai Cabinet appointed, at its weekly meeting, Deputy Transport Minister Chatchart Suthipan as the deputy chair and the spokesman of the government’s committee on the conceptual framework for the 350-billion-baht flood prevention projects. Science and Technology Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi told reporters that Tuesday's weekly Cabinet meeting also resolved for a one-month extension of the official dateline for the submission of individual firms or consortiums bidding for running the flood prevention projects, until September 14, 2012, so that the contractors will have enough time to work out their proposals. According to the minister, the flood prevention projects will be implemented in the design-and-build manner, but the design of each project is to be completed at least one month before its construction, aimed at speeding up the implementation of each project and preventing contractors from abandoning their work and getting involved in corruption. The science and technology minister also acknowledged that the Thai government will not apply any special procurement procedure, following strong criticisms, but the administration will operate the projects with domestic investment only; so, international financial institutes, like the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation, will not participate in the projects. Government spokeswoman Sansanee Nakpong told a press conference that the extended period for bidders of the flood prevention projects is aimed at providing more time for them, and that selected bidders are to each have past investment, from 2002 to 2012, amounting to at least 10 per cent of their quoted prices of the projects with their past minimal investment projects required at 200 million baht each. (TNA)