Chinese Company under Investigation for Collapsed Building in Thailand

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Mar 31: An anti-corruption watchdog of Thailand has flagged irregularities in the construction of a Bangkok skyscraper having Chinese link and the police have detained four Chinese nationals allegedly for unauthorised entry and removing some documents related to its construction.

The unfinished tower was the only Bangkok building among a large number of under-construction skyscrapers in the Bangkok skyline that completely crumbled when a 7.7 magnitude quake struck central Myanmar on Friday and rattled neighbouring countries.

According to official sources, 17 deaths have been confirmed, with 32 injured and 76 still unaccounted for – most of them construction workers from the site of the collapsed building. Search and rescue teams continue working under intense heat to locate possible survivors.

The government had threatened to cancel the project earlier this year because of delays, Mana Nimitmongkol, president of the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, said. The government has announced an investigation into the cause of the collapse of the tower, which was being built by a Chinese company and a long-established Thai construction firm.

Rescuers were still desperately searching on Monday for 76 more people feared trapped under the rubble of the unfinished 30-storey tower for Thailand’s State Audit Office. Construction of the building, which began in 2020, is being carried out by a joint venture between Italian Thai Development PCL and a local subsidiary of China’s state-owned China Railway Group, the China Railway Number 10 (Thailand) Ltd.

The audit office has said it would investigate the cause of the building collapse. The tower was originally slated for completion by 2026 but was behind schedule. The deputy auditor general, Sutthipong Boonnithi, told reporters on Saturday that construction was only “30% completed” before it collapsed.

Site visits to the project during construction by the anti-corruption group had raised concerns about delays, worker shortages and possible corner-cutting, Mana said. “Sometimes the number of workers on site were much fewer than there should be, causing delays,” he said. “Potentially there was a rush to complete the project towards the end, which could cause a drop in the standard of work.”

Mana, whose organisation scrutinises some 170 government projects around the country, said the construction delay was so severe that the audit office had threatened to cancel the contract with the two construction companies in January.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra had ordered government agencies to investigate the root cause of the building collapse within one week. The official Thai investigation is looking into the construction plan, the standard of the material used as well as possible unsafe action during the construction of the building.

Police in Thailand detained four Chinese nationals on Sunday for unlawfully entering the site of the collapsed building. The police said these men were trying to retrieve documents from the building site. The Chinese-backed construction firm is being investigated over the collapse of the 30-story under-construction high-rise during Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake. The unfinished building crumbled in seconds, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air and trapping dozens under the rubble.

Police Major General Nopasin Poolswat, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said four Chinese nationals were apprehended for illegally removing 32 files of documents from the rear of the collapsed State Audit Office (SAO) building, without permission.

After the powerful quake, the Bangkok Governor declared the area of the building collapse a disaster zone, thereby designating it as a restricted area where no one was allowed to enter without authorization. However, the police said on Saturday, they received information about some individuals removing documents from the site. Upon investigation, they located one of the Chinese men near the incident site, who claimed he was the project manager for a building construction project.

During the probe, it was confirmed that the apprehended man had a valid work permit and that his company was employed by a joint venture with Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited, the contractor for the building under construction. Police also located three other men and confiscated 32 documents they were carrying, which included various types of paperwork.

The four Chinese individuals told police that they were subcontractors working for a contractor under Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited. They said they entered the area to retrieve the documents that were needed for an insurance claim and were stored in a container that was being used as a temporary office by the company.

Later on Sunday, authorities from the Chatuchak District Office filed a complaint against five Chinese nationals for violating the public announcement by entering the building site and removing blueprints and other documents from the collapsed SAO building. As a result, the police will proceed with legal action against the four individuals. The fifth individual, their employer, is under investigation, and further actions will follow.

Han Zhinqiang, China’s ambassador to Thailand, said China would cooperate in the investigation. Thai Industry Minister Akanat Promphan said he was concerned that sub-standard steel may have been used in the construction of the building as he led the team collecting samples from the rubble. The material gathered was being tested at the site, and results were expected to be announced soon.

The Ministry has been cracking down on companies that have produced sub-standard steel over the past six months, shutting down seven factories and seizing 360 million baht (about $10 million) worth of assets from these steel companies, he said. “Many of these factories used an old production process and equipment relocated from China,” Akanat said, adding: “This has led to sub-standard steel.”

Experts from the council of engineers that is assisting the government in surveying buildings around the Thai capital for earthquake damages speculated that the skyscraper could have collapsed due to unsafe material or poor planning in the building process. “It is strange that no other buildings suffered like this,” Anek Siripanichgorn, a board member of the Council of Engineers Thailand said. “Even other tall buildings under construction, they did not collapse,” he said.