Court rules in favour of consortium

The Supreme Administrative Court ordered a lower court to accept a petition yesterday by a consortium that is building the Klong Dan wastewater treatment plant, in response to a state agency’s probe into its financial transactions.

The ruling was in favour of the NVPSKG consortium, which accused the AntiMoney Laundering Office (Amlo) of unlawfully investigating their bank accounts and financial transactions.

According to the consortium, Amlo had asked for cooperation from banks and financial institutions to report transactions from bank accounts belonging to the six companies under the consortium to the agency.

It said Amlo’s move was unlawful, and submitted the petition seeking the scrapping of such an order to the Central Administrative Court.

However, the lower court threw out its petition and the consortium appealed the decision.

NVPSKG consortium comprises six firms — Vijitphan Construction, Prayoonvit Co, Sisaeng Karnyotha, Krungthon Engineering, Gateway Development, and Samut Prakan Operating Co.

In its ruling, the Supreme Administrative Court said that Amlo’s order directly affected the six companies while the agency had not filed a civil lawsuit against the consortium to initiate a legal process to seize their assets.

The Supreme Administrative Court ordered the Central Administrative Court to accept the consortium’s petition for consideration as well as its request for an injunction before the hearing proceeds.

The petition is one of the disputes between the consortium and state agencies over the graft-plagued wastewater treatment plant in Samut Prakan.

In January this year, the Pollution Control Department filed a petition with the Central Administrative Court, asking it to reconsider the Klong Dan wastewater treatment plant case.