The southern branch of the Office of the Public Sector AntiCorruption Commission (PACC), which is investigating alleged irregularities in the project, stated yesterday that it suspects several officials were involved.

“Procurement contracts mention the installation of 16 security cameras for each system. But we have found that each system has just six security cameras,” Pol LtColonel Samart Chainarong said yesterday.

He said the ongoing investigation had found that the contracts specified that each security camera cost about Bt31,000 – far much higher than the market price of between Bt4,000 and Bt5,000.

Chainarong said bidding collusion might have played a role in the procurement process, as there were just four bidders in the project that covered more than 1,000 schools in the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces and some border districts of Songkhla province.

The Education Ministry pushed for CCTV installation in the area in the hope of boosting the safety of its students and educational personnel. The area has been afflicted by violent turmoil for more than a decade.

“We suspect bidding collusion. The procurement in various areas of the Safe School Project attracted just four bidders and all these bidders won projects in some areas. It’s as if they shared the projects among themselves because when they failed in any area, they usually failed on technical grounds, such as a failure to submit a complete sets of documents,” Samart said.

He said his office would alert the National AntiCorruption Commission and the Office of the AuditorGeneral to help investigate the case and take action against wrongdoers.