Japanese contractor allegedly bribes city Thai officials

[sandman67]

By The Nation
A former executive of Nishimatsu Construction Co. has told Japanese prosecutors that the Japanese general contractor paid more than 400 million yen or Bt125 million in 2003 to officials of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), Kyodo News Agency reported Monday.


Japanese contractor allegedly bribes city Thai officials

PM Samak was BMA governor in 2003.

The alleged bribes were in return for ''favors'' connected to the award of a tunnel project in 2003. Incumbent Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was Bangkok governor at that time.

The former executive of the major Japanese general contractor is being investigated by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law for bringing in around 100 million yen from overseas without reporting it to customs, the sources said.

In September 2003, a partnership Nishimatsu Construction and a local general contractor was awarded a project ordered by the BMA to build a tunnel to ease flooding.

The project was worth around 6 billion yen, according to the administration.

Local staff of Nishimatsu in Thailand prepared bribes after consulting executives of Nishimatsu's Thai partner, the sources said. The payments were apparently made to Thai government officials and officials in charge of overseeing bids for the project just before and after the project was awarded.

The Nishimatsu executive claims he was not directly involved in bribing the officials but ''in return for favors to secure the tunnel construction project, the company paid a total of more than 400 million yen to Thai government officials,'' the sources said.

''Such operational funds were necessary in order to be awarded public works projects in Thailand,'' he was quoted as saying.

The prosecutors searched Nishimatsu's head office in Tokyo's Minato Ward in early June in connection with the former executive's suspected violation of the foreign exchange law. The prosecutors suspect that the 100 million yen he brought into Japan was part of a slush fund.

The prosecutors are also conducting investigations into Pacific Consultants International, a major Japanese construction consultancy, in connection with a case of suspected bribery in Vietnam related to a project funded by official development assistance from the Japanese government.

Comment: AH HA! Wont it be a shame if the person concerned kept a list of who was paid and that comes out in court? Guess whose name would be top of that list?