Glove wars: Public Warehouse Organisation gears up for legal battle over undelivered goods
The Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) is currently embarking on a legal battle against its former director and six other officials for undelivered gloves. The lawsuit is centred around the return of a 2 billion baht deposit that was paid for a 112 billion baht rubber glove purchase during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was never delivered.
Kriangsak Prateepvisut, the PWO director, revealed yesterday, January 15, that legal action has already been instigated against the seven officials. This follows a previous decision by the Comptroller General’s Department which held these officials accountable for the botched procurement of 500 million rubber gloves.
The officials, who were implicated last month, extracted 2 billion baht from the PWO’s account as a deposit for the glove supplier. Among those in the crosshairs is former acting PWO director, Rungroj Puttiyaphiwat.
Concurrently, criminal proceedings have been initiated. The suspects’ assets, including land, lavish cars and motorcycles, and high-end watches and bags, have been seized.
Rungroj, however, has denied all corruption allegations, previously stating that he anticipated the 2020 procurement project would generate profit for the organisation.
The deposit in question was paid to Guardian Gloves Co, the designated supplier. The company had been contracted by the PWO to supply rubber gloves, a product that was in high demand at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the substantial deposit, not a single pair of gloves was delivered to the PWO, prompting the organisation to terminate the contract.
In related news, last year an American PPE company alleged that a Thai woman defrauded them of a staggering 239 million baht (US$8 million) in a high-profile public fraud case centred around rubber gloves.
On February 18, 2021, US Company Quick Aid LLC wired 239 million Thai baht to a private Thai company named Singhaseni Group Co., Ltd. The Thai company had a single 45 year old director named Chinna Sinhaseni, said Quick Aid.
The 239 million baht sent to Chinna was intended to be a 50% deposit for the purchase of certified USFDA/CDC 510(K) rubber nitrile gloves.
