Contract for State Audit Office construction under scrutiny

The State Audit Office (SAO) is coming under heavy criticism on social media over the awarding of the contract for the construction of its new head office, which collapsed following the earthquake centered in Myanmar on Friday, to a Chinese construction company in joint venture with Italian-Thai Development (ITD).

One netizen urged the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the Budget Bureau to investigate all aspects of the SAO’s construction project thoroughly, starting with the committee which approved the design of the building, the median price of the project of over 2.1 billion baht and the acceptance of the construction materials.

The netizen said that the SAO, whose main duty is to audit spending by other state agencies, should also be subject to investigation, as it was the only high-rise building under construction in the capital which collapsed as a result of the tremor(s).

Meanwhile, the CSI LA Facebook page, which came to fame by exposing the luxury brand name wristwatches worn by General Prawit Wongsuwan about a decade ago, raised questions about the credibility of the Chinese construction company, ‘China Railway No. 10 (Thailand)’.

CSI LA said it had sent its reporters to survey the Chinese company and found that it is located in a shop house, which looks like a secondhand alloy wheels store, rather than a company responsible for implementing a 2 billion baht construction project.

It claimed that they took pictures of the company’s office from a car today and that the office was closed with no sign of human activity, albeit a Sunday.