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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
By Ron Corben
Bangkok
09 February 2007
A Thai committee examining alleged1 corruption2 by the deposed3 government of Thaksin Shinawatra says cases involving the country's new international airport will be presented to a criminal court by late May. As Ron Corben reports from Bangkok, the look into the troubled airport is just one of several investigations5 into Mr. Thaksin's administration.
Baggage car runs during testing at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok (April 2006 file photo)
A committee of auditors7 and senior judges says corruption in the construction of the $4 billion Suvarnabhumi International Airport might have cost taxpayers8 more than $40 million.
The Assets Investigation4 Committee was created by the Thai military after it ousted9 Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a coup10 last September.
The committee is investigating allegations of corruption during Mr. Thaksin's five-year term. Among the topics of investigation is the sale of his family's telecommunications company to a Singapore investment firm, which earned the family almost $2 billion tax-free.
The immediate11 concern is the new airport, which opened in September southeast of Bangkok.
Auditor6 General Jaruvan Maintaka says the committee is "very confident" that the evidence supports allegations of corruption there - although she says uncovering the evidence was not easy.
"The whole thing was very well planned. It makes the whole investigation very much more difficult," she said.
Because of that, she says, the investigations have been painstaking12.
"We need to be very certain that there would be no hole for them to look out. So we are very, very careful on each of the words we are going to use. That's why we take a certain time here," she said.
Appeals Court Judge Amnuay Phantara says the committee examined an airport contract for U.S.-made luggage scanners, known as CTX scanners, as well as contracts involving companies from Japan, Germany and Thailand.
A worker cleans the floor at the check-in lounge of the Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand, in this 21 July 2006 photo
Amnuay says the investigation closely follows the Anti-Corruption Act. He says final documents will be submitted to the Auditor General's office, to allow court hearings to start by late May.
Mr. Thaksin, the former transport minister, the former Airport Authority chairman and other Thaksin government officials have been accused of corruption in the CTX case. Mr. Thaksin and members of his government have repeatedly denied the allegations, which first surfaced while he was still in office.
Thaksin Shinawatra (file photo)
Earlier this week, the Democrat13 Party, a strong critic of Mr. Thaksin, released a summary of its own investigations into Thaksin-era dealings. The report estimates that corruption and cronyism14 cost Thailand more than $850 million.
Democrat Party deputy leader Alongkorn Ponlaboot calls the scanner contract central to the party's investigation, which also examined the contract for airport duty-free shops that went to a company called King Power.
"The CTX corruption scandal is one of the major topics in the book, and also about the King Power. We try to pinpoint15 that there is no transparency to provide such a concession," he said.
The new airport has been plagued by problems. Cracks in the parking ramps16 for jetliners and other flaws have forced the government to start reopening Bangkok's old airport, which had been closed down. Some domestic and international flights will be routed there until the problems are resolved.
1 alleged | |
a.被指控的,嫌疑的 | |
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2 corruption | |
n.腐败,堕落,贪污 | |
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3 deposed | |
v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 );(在法庭上)宣誓作证 | |
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4 investigation | |
n.调查,调查研究 | |
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5 investigations | |
(正式的)调查( investigation的名词复数 ); 侦查; 科学研究; 学术研究 | |
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6 auditor | |
n.审计员,旁听着 | |
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7 auditors | |
n.审计员,稽核员( auditor的名词复数 );(大学课程的)旁听生 | |
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8 taxpayers | |
纳税人,纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 ) | |
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9 ousted | |
驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 ); 革职; 罢黜; 剥夺 | |
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10 coup | |
n.政变;突然而成功的行动 | |
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11 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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12 painstaking | |
adj.苦干的;艰苦的,费力的,刻苦的 | |
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13 democrat | |
n.民主主义者,民主人士;民主党党员 | |
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14 cronyism | |
n.任人唯亲,对好朋友的偏袒 | |
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15 pinpoint | |
vt.准确地确定;用针标出…的精确位置 | |
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16 ramps | |
resources allocation and multiproject scheduling 资源分配和多项目的行程安排 | |
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