The Mukdahan provincial office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has expressed reservations over a provincial civil works and town planning officeproposal to secure 40-million baht to repair damaged “fancy”lamp posts, a weir and a wind-powered water storage tank in the municipal area.

Head of the provincial NACC office, Anucha Poengboonsri, and director of the civil works and town planning office, Vinai Seethiangtham, visited the site of the damaged facilities, close to Sila Wiwek monastery, on Thursday for a field inspection,following call by civil society for a reinvestigation of the projects.

Anucha told the media during the trip that, before additional budget can be granted, the civil works and town planning office must make sure that the projects will be accepted by the Muang district municipality, after it has completed the repair work, and that the municipality will take care of future maintenance.

The civil works and town planning office has promised to complete the repairs to the lamp posts, a weir, a pavilion and the water storage tank in two years, spending about 40 million baht.

The officials inspecting the site on Thursday found all the lamp posts broken and unusable, the weir has collapsed and the other facilities at the site abandoned and in a state of disrepair.

The provincial governor wants the site to be repaired, so it can be turned into a tourism attraction, but the provincial NACC office disagrees, pointing out that the site is not suitable for tourism and the budget could be better used to improve the landscape of the other locations which are more suitable and beneficial to the people.