The House committee, tasked with following up on budget spending, has discovered that more than 20 construction projects in the southern province of Trang are plagued with irregularities, with several being incomplete and abandoned by the contractors, while others are completed but not according to the designs.
In her Facebook post, a member of the committee, People’s Party MP Rukchanok Srinork, who exposed the widespread irregularities, cited the case of the renovation of the town square in Muang district of Trang, by the Department of Public Works, Town and Country Planning.
The project cost about 40 million baht, which covers landscaping, sidewalk renovation, road and zebra crossing painting and renovation of the roads around the towns square.
She said that the road was, however, painted in the shape of a flower around the clock tower and other patterns, but lacks traffic lights and lane markings, adding that a traffic police officer has complained to her that motorists were confused, so road barriers had to be installed to form a circle around the tower.
This project was not completed in accordance with the design, she claimed.
The opposition MP also claimed that there are 23 projects, worth a total of about two billion baht, which have mostly been abandoned by the contractors, such as the new out-patient building at the Trang provincial hospital and the construction of a passenger terminal at Trang international airport.
Director-general of the Airports Department, Danai Ruangsorn, explained that the terminal project has been delayed since the contractor abandoned it. The department has scrapped the contract and is now in the process of selecting a new contractor to continue the project.
He predicted that it will be completed by October this year.
The House committee chairman, Surachet Pravinvongvuth, said they have received many complaints from civil society organisations in Trang and have decided to launch the probe.
He said the panel will look into the problem of projects being abandoned by contractors, to determine whether the contractors were qualified in the first place.
