June 2005 : Confidential Vote for Transport Minister Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreaungkit received confidential votes by the House of Reps in censure debate allegation on irregularities procurement of bomb scanners. A joint House-Senate meeting approved the government amendment bill of the constitution. The cabinet approved a 16 billion baht project on construction of co-generation power plant in Jana district of Songkla province and 3 percent increase on payment to all independent agencies personnel. The EC revised local election ballot marking from pen to rubber stamp and Pramote Chotmongkol secretariat to the Office of the Ombudsman was chose by the senate to become the third ombudsman. Confidential vote for Suriya The extraordinary assembly of the House on June 29 gave 367 confidential vote against 119 non-confidential and 7 abstained to Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreungkit on allegation of irregularities in procurement of 4.3 billion baht for 26 units CTX 9000 bomb scanners for Suvarnabhumi airport. Regarding to the US Justice Department and stock market exchange websites publishing that G.E InVision Technologies was found guilty and fined of USD 800,000 on given bribery to Thai officials and politicians in exchange of buying bomb detectors for installation in New Bangkok International Airport [ NBIA]. PM Thaksin Shinawatra and Transport Minister after asserted on their transparency empowered Deputy PM Wisanu Kreaungam to appoint an investigation panel and the outcome was that the allegation was not true. The opposition party submitted a request for a censure debate on the CTX scandal but failed to win. Previously the senate led by Cheingmai senator Intharat Yodbangtuey also failed to collect 120 supporters to request for debate in regards to article 187 of the constitution. Charter amendment bill passed 2nd reading The joint House-Senate meeting on June 15 voted 414-117 to approve a draft bill on constitution amendment submitted by the cabinet. The amendment is on of article 297 paragraph 3 on the selection panel of the National Counter Corruption Commission [ NCCC] to be comprised of : 1. Three representatives from the Supreme Court, Administrative Court and Constitution Court. 2. One voted representative from four independent agencies; Election Commission, State Audit, Human Rights and Ombudsman. 3. Two representatives from political party, one each from the ruling and opposition party. 4. Six voted representatives from the state universities. Reference is made to the resignation of the nine members of NCCC after the Supreme Court political section ruled them guilty of malfeasance of self-approve pay rise and the selection process was stuck due to article 297 of the Constitution states selection panel members shall comprise of representatives form state agencies and 5 representatives from political parties while there are actually 4 political parties; Thai Rak Thai, Democrat, Chart Thai and Mahachon sitting in the parliament. The government therefore proposed to amend the constitution on numbers of selection panel for NCCC while the opposition party proposed to revise on numbers of selection panels on all 3 independent agencies; NCCC, EC and Constitution Court. The parliament appointed a 45 members extraordinary panel to scrutinize the government’s draft bill. Green light to power plant mega-project The cabinet approved a project of 16,908.55 million baht submitted by Ministry of Energy commissioning the Electrical Generating Authority of Thailand [ EGAT] to construct a power plant in Jana district of Songkla province. The plant will use natural gas from the Gulf of Thailand as fuel to produce electrical supply to meet increasing demand in the near future. Construction period divides into 2 phases 1] construction of a 700 megawatt co-generation plant between 2005-2008 and 2] construction of 27 kilometer 230 Kv supplying grid from the plant to Had Yai high voltage sub-station. Due to 38,880 cubic meter of raw water from Klong Na Thap will be piped daily to cool the plant and discharged back into natural water resources, Banchong Nasae director of southern natural resources management agency feared the temperature increase will effect newborn aquatic animals in the vicinity. Similar case happened to Kanom power plant in Nakorn Sri Thamarat province and had great impact on small scale fishery. There are 12 fishing villages living along Klong Na Thap and those local know nothing about the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment [EIA] and their request for contract disclosure was denied. He said only a few people in Songkla province knew about this project and the Human Rights Commission investigation revealed that construction company obtained fraud land deed due to some encroachment on pubic domain. He demanded the government to recognize importance of public participation in such a mega-project. Independent agencies payment The cabinet meeting on June 28 approved a draft bill on payment and other benefits of personals in independent agencies increase 3 percent to be affected since April 4, 2004. Those who would get the pay rise are jury panel of the constitution court, chairman of the election commission, ombudsmen, chairman of NCCC and chairman of the state audit whose new payment will be comparable to the prime minister’s salary. However the bill will be sent to the government WHIP for scrutiny before submitting to the parliament. Polling system revised Pol. Maj Gen. Ekachai Varunprapa secreatariat to the Election Commission on June 9 announced a new method of ballot marking to be first used in 3,512 local authority polls in July 31, 2005. Voter will use a rubber stamp instead of a pen to mark his choice in the polling kiosk so to eliminate either his error or polling staffs wrong judgment. New ombudsman The Senate on June 28 voted 120 to chose Pramote Chotmongkol secretariat to the Office of the Ombudsman to become the third ombudsman. Article 196 of the constitution states there should be 3 ombudsmen and the other two are Gen. Teeradet Meepein and Poonsap Piya-anan. Promote will get royal appointment before he performs his first duty.