Fri, May 24, 2013 22:19:39 PM
Bangkok Post
Fri, May 24, 2013 22:19:39 PM
Bangkok Post
A Senate committee investigating corruption will next week petition the Office of the Ombudsman to ask the Administrative Court to launch a judicial review of the auction of 3G mobile phone service licences.
Paiboon Nititawan, a member of the Senate panel, said the petition will seek a court ruling on whether the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's (NBTC) telecom committee has the authority to endorse the bidding outcome.
The telecom committee, chaired by Settapong Malisuwan, approved the results of the 3G auction shortly after the bid took place.
The green light came amid criticism of a lack of competition in the bid and possible price collusion among the three bidders.
Mr Paiboon said the committee has reviewed the telecom committee's power and found it may have violated the charter and the frequency allocation legislation when it ratified the auction results.
He said the petition will be handed to the president of the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday.
Mr Paiboon said he hopes court intervention will lead to a new bid which would allow greater competition or revenue generation for the state.
"I'd like to see either of these things happen. The bidders may have to submit new prices or the design of the bidding may be changed to encourage others to compete," he said.
Rosana Tositrakul, also a member of the Senate committee on anti-corruption, said the panel has found a number of issues to look into after summoning the NBTC to testify on Thursday.
She said the panel will investigate those issues one by one and summon people involved to give further information about the bid.
The senator said one issue is that the auction date was announced at short notice.
The bidding was called two months after the announcement, leaving small operators unable to compete.
Ms Rosana said 17 firms had expressed an interest in bidding but only three companies took part.
Moreover, the bidders were asked to pay a deposit of 1.35 billion baht each.
She said the practice has led to allegations of bid fixing. The auction should have been announced one year in advance to guarantee competition, she said."With such short notice, small operators didn't have enough time to prepare a business plan for seeking loans. So it left only the existing three major players able to join," she said.
Ms Rosana also called on the NBTC to look into a report that the mobile phone service operators were prepared to increase 3G service fees despite the watchdog's plan to have the prices brought down by 15-20%.
NBTC secretary-general Thakorn Tantasit said yesterday a committee has been set up to investigate the three bidders for any signs of price collusion before licences are granted.
The seven-man panel, chaired by Suvijak Nakwatcharachai, secretary to the House of Representatives, has 15 days to wrap up the probe and submit the findings to the telecom committee.
The telecom panel has yet to issue operating licences to the three bidders.
The NBTC auctioned nine 15-year licences for 41.6 billion baht, just 1.1 billion above the reserve price, to the three bidders representing mobile operators Advanced Info Service (AIS), Total Access Communication (Dtac) and TrueMove.
Dtac Network yesterday handed over a cashier's cheque for almost 5.9 billion baht to pay part of the upfront fees to the NBTC.
