Budget sought to hunt for Vatana

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is asking for 119,000 baht from the 2014 budget so its officials can travel to Cambodia to hunt for fugitive former deputy interior minister Vatana Asavahame.

This indicates that the hunt for Vatana is likely to be carried out in 2014, Democrat MP for Nakhon Si Thammarat Apichat Sakdiseth said on Wednesday.

Mr Apichart is deputy chairman of a subcommittee on training, public relations and hiring and purchasing on the House committee scrutinising the 2014 Budget Bill.

The MP said the subcommittee found while going through the OAG’s request for allocations from the 2014 budget that the office is seeking a special budget of 119,000 baht.

The OAG said of the total, 24,800 baht would be spent on four-day per diem allowances for two officials of C-9 level (3,000 baht per day each), 30,000 baht for a three-night stay at a hotel (10,000 baht per night), 48,400 baht for round trip air tickets, 14,200 baht for an air ticket to bring the fugitive home, and 1,600 baht for taxis.

Vatana was sentenced in 2008 by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions to 10 years in jail for bribing officials over a land grab in the Klong Dan wastewater treatment project in Samut Prakan.

He fled the country before the verdict was read out.

The fugitive politician made his first public appearance at a Buddhist temple he commissioned in China in September last year.  Wat Hame Assavaram is located in Luoyang in the central Chinese province of Henan.

In a press interview on that day, he said he initially spent his exile in Cambodia before travelling to visit his friends in China, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

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Budget sought to hunt for Vatana