Bangkok’s governor made a bold vow yesterday to step down and go to prison if irregularities were found in a THB13 billion (US$420 million) baht project that has already claimed two of his deputies.
Gov. Aswin Kwanmuang told reporters he was willing to go to prison were any corruption found in a municipal waste processing project that has drawn investigations from two public anti-graft agencies and believed to have prompted the surprise resignations of two deputy governors.
Deputy Bangkok governor resigns under 13-billion-baht cloud
Instead, he said Jakkapan Phiewngam and Thaweesak Lertpraphan quit because of health problems that developed because they just worked so hard and really needed to take a rest. Really, he said that and kept a straight face the entire time.
Aswin insisted that municipal officials kept to strict bidding rules in awarding contracts to build the two expensive waste incinerators that have resulted in accusations of favoritism. In the meantime, he named Sophon Phisutthiwong and Sakchai Bunma as replacements for Jakkapan and Thaweesak.
Earlier this year, separate probes were launched into the project based on complaints by transparency activist Srisuwan Janya that work was overly expensive and improperly awarded.
Aswin’s predecessor was brought down by a series of scandals involving misuse of public funds. In 2016, the junta leader used his absolute power to fire the last democratically elected governor, Sukhumbhand Paribatra. Aswin, a former police general, was installed by Prayuth Chan-o-cha and proved reliably loyal to the military government, whose members have emerged from larger clouds of scandal unscathed.
