Senator Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan has criticised the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), after the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases cleared her and nine former colleagues at the Justice Ministry’s Central Institute of Forensic Science on Tuesday of corruption charges, related to the procurement of six GT-200 bomb detectors 14 years ago, which turned out to be fake.
The court ruled that there was no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Khunying Porntip or the nine co-defendants were involved in malpractice or sought ill-gotten gains from the deal, as charged by the NACC.
In her “X” and Facebook posts, after being acquitted, Khunying wrote that, today, we have finally been cleared of wrongdoing.
“Throughout the past 14 years, there were attempts to communicate and to create negative news claiming that I and the Central Institute of Forensic Science were the cause of the procurement deal and damage, despite the fact that several other security agencies also made procurements of the same device,” she wrote.
She cited, for example, the army’s procurement of 757 GT-200 in 2007, the Royal Thai Navy’s procurement of 38 GT-200 in 2007, the Royal Thai Air Force’s procurement of 26 of the devices in 2005 and the Royal Aide-de-Camp Department’s procurement of 8 of the devices in 2008.
Nonetheless, she said that the NACC chose to indict her and her staff, despite the fact that the Comptroller Department and experts had approved the deal, adding that none of the defendants had a chance to clarify their position to the NACC.
She accused the NACC of abusing its authority and of painting her and her former colleagues in a negative light.
“There is, though, blue sky after the storm,” she wrote.
