The Public Warehouse Organization (PWO) has been working with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) to proceed with lawsuits against those involved in corruption in procuring 500 million boxes of rubber gloves worth 112 billion baht in 2020.
PWO director Kriangsak Prateepvisut on Thursday said that the PWO is preparing to file civil and criminal lawsuits against those offenders after the NACC last month found grounds against 22 suspects, including senior PWO officials involved with alleged corruption in the gloves' procurement.
The initial damage to the PWO was estimated at 2 billion baht, which excluded the interest that acting PWO director Pol Col Rungroj Puttiyaphiwat and his associates colluded in withdrawing from the PWO's bank account to pay a deposit to Guardian Gloves Co Ltd, Mr Kriangsak said.
Guardian Gloves received orders from the PWO to supply rubber gloves which were in high demand during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The PWO put down 2 billion baht as a deposit for the order. However, the PWO never received a single pair of gloves, and the organisation has now scrapped the contract with the firm.
Mr Kriangsak said the NACC earlier froze 550 million baht of the 2 billion baht in the bank account of Guardian Gloves, as well as 33 rai of land. Besides the bank account, Amlo discovered additional amounts of assets but said they cannot be disclosed for now. That said, the PWO will cooperate with the two agencies to retrieve its assets soon, Mr Kriangsak said. He said the tortious liability of state officials had been vetted by the panel and will be submitted to the Finance Ministry so that a civil lawsuit can be launched.
The PWO has also coordinated with the NACC to obtain information and send it to Amlo to probe transactions with the firm to file criminal lawsuits in relation to corruption.
