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SRT to file civil case against Hopewell over foreign company qualifications


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SRT to file civil case against Hopewell over foreign company qualifications

By THE NATION

 

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Saksyam Chidchob

 

Transport Minister Saksyam Chidchob said on Tuesday (October 15) that board members of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will today consider filing a civil case against Hopewell (Thailand) Co Ltd after the committee examining the Hopewell case chaired by Pisak Jitwiriyawasin, deputy permanent secretary at the ministry, discovered that the Hopewell elevated highway and rail line project could have violated the law regarding foreign companies.

 

“The law requires that foreign companies conducting business in Thailand must be qualified according to the Announcement of the National Executive Council No. 281 and must be approved by the Cabinet, which Hopewell wasn’t,” he said. “We are looking to file a civil case not because we are hoping to get compensation, but to have the contract revoked once the court rules that Hopewell was not qualified to conduct business in the Kingdom.”

 

The Minister also added that the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has taken on the SRT versus Hopewell case filed earlier at the Supreme Administrative Court as a special case. “The DSI will later look into the possibility to file criminal charges against Hopewell,” said Saksyam.

 

Earlier the Supreme Administrative Court had ruled that SRT had breached the contract and must pay Bt11.8 billion compensation to Hopewell together with 7.5 per cent interest annually within 180 days of the ruling date.

 

The deadline for payment is this Saturday (October 19). The Deputy Prime Minister for legal affairs Wissanu Krua-ngam will be responsible for the payment procedures.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30377432

 

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-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-10-16
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15 minutes ago, webfact said:

“The law requires that foreign companies conducting business in Thailand must be qualified according to the Announcement of the National Executive Council No. 281 and must be approved by the Cabinet, which Hopewell wasn’t,”

So, who awarded them the contract?

 

16 minutes ago, webfact said:

“We are looking to file a civil case not because we are hoping to get compensation, but to have the contract revoked once the court rules that Hopewell was not qualified to conduct business in the Kingdom.”

 

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2 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

So, who awarded them the contract?

 

 

Exactly . If company was not authorised to do any business why did you award them the contract without doing any checks ?

 

and I have a feeling even if company was, registration and approvals somehow would be lost or due to corrupt official issued illegally and therefore thailand owes nothing .

 

yup, sure as hell hub for foreign investment 

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The case has been dedermined through various courts and appeals. Now after 20 years, whether the company was qualified is their only hope.

 

Awarded by government who I assume was approved by a superior authority and now the government is questioning whether the government should have awarded the contract to this company.

 

The monkeys and buffalos are certainly in charge.

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6 minutes ago, Reigntax said:

Now after 20 years, whether the company was qualified is their only hope.

 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Announcement of the National Executive Council No. 281

Maybe one of those "retro active" laws ???

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I wonder what became of the statute of limitations? Does this apply to this type of case?

Given this case has been an ongoing issue for several decades, it might be a little late to start this line of prosecution. You would think any number of previous governments would have looked into this avenue.

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3 hours ago, Chang_paarp said:

I wonder what became of the statute of limitations? Does this apply to this type of case?

Given this case has been an ongoing issue for several decades, it might be a little late to start this line of prosecution. You would think any number of previous governments would have looked into this avenue.

The government approved the contract and accepted it. That was the only time consideration could be given to the company's qualifications.

And if it wasn't done, the government is at fault, not the contractor.

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56 minutes ago, Oziex1 said:

Well I was just about to invest in the EEC when I read this. 

 

The CP consortium who are expected to sign the HS airport rail contract must be reading this and wondering why they ever got involved in a deal with the SRT and the scheming Thai low life government. 

 

 

 

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11 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

The CP consortium who are expected to sign the HS airport rail contract must be reading this and wondering why they ever got involved in a deal with the SRT and the scheming Thai low life government. 

 

 

Well CP are Thai, as are some other members of their multinational consortium. Is it unreasonable to say that CP already enjoy an enduring, close and mutually beneficial relationship with the Government?

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43 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

Don't invest any more than you are willing to lose! Read up on Kingsgate, Chatree goldmine.

 

Maybe you can add Chevron, Mitsui and Total to that list if the Minerals Department gets their way and hammers the current operators of Erawan and Bongkot for 105 billion baht decommissioning charges. These fields come under PTTEP (Thai state owned) operatorship in 2022/23.

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11 hours ago, webfact said:

Hopewell was not qualified to conduct business in the Kingdom.”

 

But Thailand took their money anyway...

and it's taken them how many years to come up with this !

regards worgeordie

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11 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Don't invest any more than you are willing to lose! Read up on Kingsgate, Chatree goldmine.

 

 

10 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Maybe you can add Chevron, Mitsui and Total to that list if the Minerals Department gets their way and hammers the current operators of Erawan and Bongkot for 105 billion baht decommissioning charges. These fields come under PTTEP (Thai state owned) operatorship in 2022/23.

Add Carlsberg and Pepsi to the list, both were in partnership with Thai companies who decided they did not need the foreign partner any more. Intellectual property right ignored.

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16 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Gordon Wu and Hopewell are highly respected.  If they garner such headaches by doing business in Thailand, it should be a pretty good warning to others to charge more in Thailand or avoid it all together. 

Now you get the idea why Japan pulled out saying no thanks.. 

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23 hours ago, webfact said:

SRT to file civil case against Hopewell over foreign company qualifications

And if that fails the SRT and the government will think up some other new sneaky trick to avoid paying the damages awarded by the Supreme Court.

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Is Saksayam Chidchob eyeing little manila envelopes? I mean, after all that hopeless (pun intended) disaster you do not want to tell me, that the almighty Thai government signed a contract with an unqualified alien company and, decades later and billions of Baht piling up they all of a sudden "find out" that all this was not valid from Day One?

Carry on the good work, Saksayam Chidchob, and no non-Thai company will ever do business with the Land of Smiles anymore. 

The burden of the unfinished project, companies gone bust and employees becoming redundant - apart from above-mentioned billions of Baht of delayed interest payment - is borne not by the government, nor the transport ministry nor the state railway of inefficiency but the tax payer only. It is the latter's fault to elect the absolutely wrong people into decision-making positions at that time. 

Be glad that the tax payers are Thais and alien working in Thailand; in any other civilized country the entire lot of crooks, clowns and thieves would be facing the music, getting locked up in jail and the keys thrown far, far away. 

 

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All my dealings in Thailand have failed due to dealing with thais.from buying a bucket to rent contracts.never ever deal with them and things will go ok.

i live in a large village,all the thais are <deleted> poor and everything is owned by chinese/Thai and I mean everything from the big market,the high street,gold shops,cash n carrys  and all the surrounding land for miles.

meanwhile the thais live in tin huts with 1-2 million baht cars i deep debt.

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On 10/16/2019 at 8:42 AM, webfact said:

SRT to file civil case against Hopewell over foreign company qualifications

While all this nonsense is going on the interest meter is still ticking. Hopewell were awarded 11.88 billion baht plus 13 billion in interest at 7.5% since the project started. So the interest bill now is in excess of the original penalty and is still going up while these fools play their legal games. 

7.5% p.a. interest on the current total debt of nearly 30 billion is a tidy sum to be accumulating while they find excuses not to pay.

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13 hours ago, champers said:

Well CP are Thai, as are some other members of their multinational consortium. Is it unreasonable to say that CP already enjoy an enduring, close and mutually beneficial relationship with the Government?

One thing seems to have escaped you. The supposed mutually beneficial working relationship is with the incompetent and corrupt SRT. Notwithstanding the fact that the government is equally incompetent in it's own right.

You know the SRT? The same useless SRT that is the subject of this very topic. I doubt there is any company, Thai or otherwise, that could survive a business relationship with the SRT.

In fact I would be delighted to see CP and their Chinese partners do their money cold by getting mixed up with the SRT. It could very easily be a replay of Hopewell. 

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4 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

One thing seems to have escaped you. The supposed mutually beneficial working relationship is with the incompetent and corrupt SRT. Notwithstanding the fact that the government is equally incompetent in it's own right.

You know the SRT? The same useless SRT that is the subject of this very topic. I doubt there is any company, Thai or otherwise, that could survive a business relationship with the SRT.

In fact I would be delighted to see CP and their Chinese partners do their money cold by getting mixed up with the SRT. It could very easily be a replay of Hopewell. 

I don't see SRT or the Government shafting CP or a Chinese backer. There is an entire new board at SRT, hand picked by the Government. Time will tell.

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23 minutes ago, champers said:

I don't see SRT or the Government shafting CP or a Chinese backer. There is an entire new board at SRT, hand picked by the Government. Time will tell.

You still don't seem to understand. It is not a matter of the CP Group not being shafted by the SRT or the government. It is a matter of unintended incompetence and intended corruption by the SRT.

The government is responsible for the debt and mismanagement by the SRT. When it comes to money they will come to the defence of the SRT first and let the other parties hang out to dry whether they be Thai or otherwise. That is what is happening right now with Hopewell and they were a reputable Chinese company.

Yes, time will tell. It took 8 years for Hopewell to find out what the SRT were really like; incompetent and corrupt to the core. Even Prayut had to sack the Board of Directors (who were hand picked by the government) they were that bad.

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