Chuan warns Army over transparency

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

		Politics 
Chuan warns Army over transparency
PRIME Minister Chuan Leekpai on Wednesday said he has already issued
standing instructions to the Army to ensure transparency and honesty in
managing its commercial radio frequencies. 
Chuan, concurrently the defence minister, was commenting on allegations
that the Army's radio station FM 103.5 MHz had failed to remit its revenue
earnings to the Army's coffers for the past six years. 
The prime minister also held a brief meeting with Army commander Gen
Surayuth Julanont reportedly to discuss the lapse in the Army's supervision
of its radio stations. 
Surayuth, speaking after the meeting, confirmed that the Army's Signal
Department has jurisdiction over FM103.5. 
The department director, Maj Gen Charoen Benjathikul, should soon clarify
all questions related to the management of this station to the public, he
said. 
Under the instruction of former Army deputy commander Gen Viroj Saengsanit,
the FM103.5 frequency had been re-registered as an independent station
under the Signals Department in 1992, although for some reason it had been
left under the care of an Army colonel without reporting to nor sending
revenue to the Army. 
In another scandal which has affected the armed forces' image, Chuan has
ordered the armed forces to monitor and ensure that no soldier moonlights
as a ''gangster for hire'' in charge of protecting motorcycle taxi stands,
entertainment venues and collecting debts. 
Surayuth said he had instructed Maj Gen Boonyung Bucha, commander of the
Army Province 11, to cooperate with Central Investigation Bureau
Commissioner Pol Lt Gen Luan Parnrostip to crack down on soldiers who
double as hooligans. 
A source from the Army Province 11, which is in charge of Bangkok and its
satellite provinces, said the CIB had informed Boonyung that the soldiers
usually prey on entertainment venues along Ratchadapisek, Phetchaburi and
Sutthisarn roads. 
The source said the Army Province 11 had deployed military police to check
the areas but had so far made no arrests. 
Surayuth said that the checking would be done regularly as a preventive
measure. 
ü Chuan on Wednesday chaired a meeting on the proposed restructuring of the
military but Supreme Commander Mongkol Ampornpisit, an ardent critic of a
reform formula advocated by Chuan's military advisers, was conspicuous by
his absence. 
Sources said neither Mongkol nor his deputy Chainarong Noonpakdee were
invited to the meeting at the Defence Ministry. 
Joining the discussion were mostly Chuan's military brains, including Gen
Yutthana Yaemphan, who chairs a restructuring study committee which wants
to give more budgetary power to the defence permanent secretary. 
The Nation