Move Forward Party, 'Move Forward' urges Bangkok on overpriced exercise equipment purchases, reveals 3 locking theory, finds high specifications to match the qualifications of large private companies, while 'Wirot' is concerned that budget changes will lead to specification locking, favoring vendors. Mr. Suphanat Meenchainan, Bangkok MP of the Move Forward Party, made a statement regarding the purchase of exercise equipment by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, which was overpriced, after the deadline for the investigation committee was reached, but it was still unclear whether there was corruption in the project or not. He said that the high price of exercise equipment was due to the 3-lock theory. Lock 1 is the specification lock. For example, the specifications of the exercise equipment were specified in the TOR to match the specifications of the exercise equipment of a certain company, such as specifying the keywords that it must be a High Contrast Display, have exercise programs including Quick S tart, Goals Profile, and X-Train, and it was also specified that it could be used in 23 languages. He was not sure why so many languages ??were used and who was given the equipment to use. Lock 2 is the price investigation lock. In the irregularities of the 759,000 baht treadmill project, there will be price investigations from the same 3 vendors for every project and the price will often be set higher and higher. But the same 3 vendors will give similar prices. This is a result of the purchase of exercise equipment often not having a central price because the Comptroller General's Department has not specified this matter. This has led to corruption in the purchase of exercise equipment many times. The third lock is the locking of work results, by specifying the results of selling the same type of equipment, which is a direct contract partner with a government agency, with a budget of no less than 5 million baht, trading less than three contracts, with a retrospective period of no more than four years, whic h is an adjustment to fit some private companies, which already happened during the era of Police General Aswin Kwanmuang, where it was found that out of 10 projects, there was a locking of the work specifications for 9 projects. When it came to the era of Mr. Chadchart Sittipunt, it was found that the specifications were locked for 12 out of 14 projects. Mr. Suphanat said that Bangkok cannot refuse to acknowledge such information because in the past there was an attempt to complain from a limited partnership company to review the new TOR because it forced companies with procurement results of 5 million baht or more to submit bids, which was seen as unfair. It also forced no less than 3 projects to be submitted, which was seen as discriminating against small companies. However, Bangkok refused to clarify the matter because it saw that the limited partnership company was not one of the bidders. Mr. Suphanat also concluded that he had also discovered that the Sports College also purchased expensive exercise e quipment. The purchase of expensive exercise equipment nationwide was a result of the Comptroller General's Department not setting a median price in this matter. Therefore, he would like to call on the Comptroller General's Department to consider this matter as well. Mr. Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn, MP for the Move Forward Party, revealed that he understood that Mr. Chadchart was quite uncomfortable. From the party's information announcement today, it was found that there were many observations and doubts about the specification locking, which Mr. Suphanat left traces that there was both the matter of investigating the price from the entrepreneurs who came to offer prices that may raise suspicions that they let one private company come in so that another would win the auction and another would give up. He saw it as a division of labor because the price was never disclosed to other entrepreneurs in a wide range. In addition, there is a lock on the specifications regarding the functionality that is not necessary an d there must be 5-6 ISO standard certificates which are more than necessary. In addition, there is a lock on the bidding price that comes in for the auction. There are questions as to whether it is like growing together or not. The first auction did not specify a time within 1 year. When the auction started, it started to be locked for 1 year, 2 years, and went as far as 4 years to prevent other private companies from joining in to bid as well. Mr. Wiroj said that tomorrow (July 30), he understood that Mr. Chadchart would have an announcement on the progress of this matter. However, from what he had followed up on what Mr. Chadchart had said, he understood the awkwardness and there was still no clarity on the information that the 10 companies that had requested prices had not yet provided any information. Therefore, he would like to suggest that civil servants investigate the actual prices from the market or the purchase price to see how much they were and whether the auction price was really expensive. He b elieved that this matter was not difficult. However, if civil servants did not cooperate, he thought that another group of civil servants who were clean could investigate the prices. He hoped that tomorrow, Mr. Chadchart, as the Governor of Bangkok, would be able to specifically determine whether there was any corruption process and who was involved. Mr. Wirot reiterated that today's event does not want to focus only on exercise equipment and any equipment because these incidents often occur with equipment procurement or construction operations. He wants to focus on the word "budget change", which has both good and bad points. The bad thing is that it can also be a source of corruption. Ready to explain that the meaning of the budget, such as the consideration of the budget of Bangkok, also set up a special committee to consider, with a total of 36 committee members, there is no regulation prohibiting outsiders who have knowledge or experience in investigating corruption from joining the special committee, which I have already checked the regulations and talked to Mr. Chadchart, who was happy to do so. However, the budget mechanism, these committees will set up another subcommittee, which normally in the past fiscal year, each Bangkok Council member can set up a subcommittee to jointly consider the budget, especially the budget in each of the 50 districts, and the Bangkok Council member can propose 3 external subcommittees. In 1 year, there is a budget of approximately 4-5 billion baht, and it is the duty of the Bangkok governor to consider reports from various standing committees of the Bangkok Council, including complaints or comments from the directors of 50 districts, to consider what projects the 4-5 billion baht will be used for to meet the needs of the people in the district, whether it is building roads or improving the drainage system, garbage system, or buying equipment that meets the needs of the people in the area. 'Therefore, if the budget is converted to a good budget, the Bangkok Council will not be involved in the budget at all because it is the executive's authority. However, the Bangkok Council will supervise the projects that use the budget to ensure that they are carried out urgently, quickly, and transparently in the procurement. However, if the budget is converted, if viewed negatively, it will be a problem. For example, on July 30, when the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's agenda is considered, if viewed negatively, a group of Bangkok Council members will come together and pressure civil servants because the district directors will only lock their own contractors, such as the purchase of fire extinguishers and mosquito repellents. Each year, there may be a leakage of 400-1,000 million baht to local politicians,' said Mr. Wirot. Mr. Wiroj said that he saw that Mr. Chadchart would be pressured continuously without a Bangkok Council member. He believed that the exercise equipment that is currently a problem was not the budget from the governor in the first place, but rather the budget o f the Bangkok Council members who came together, and the governor could not refuse to take responsibility. 'I admit that I am concerned about the Bangkok budget, which has some groups of councilors acting like they own it or colluding with the previous group of civil servants to lock the specifications so that traders in their networks can give the money back to that group of councilors, including possibly allocating some of the money back to civil servants who are willing to be their subordinates. This is the problem of all of them,' said Mr. Wirot. Mr. Wiroj said that the Move Forward Party will propose two outsiders to join the group and believes that if the names are announced in the parliament meeting, they will be well-received by the public. He also revealed that the names are initials A. Ang for both people. Source: Thai News Agency