The Bank of Thailand yesterday defended the sale of land to Khunying Pojaman Shinawatra saying it had conducted the auction process properly.

The central bank's deputy governor, Swangchit Chaiyawat, said the sale was made at a price estimated by the Land Department rather than the Treasury Department, as assumed by the Assets Examination Committee (AEC).

AEC secretary Kaewsan Atibodhi said on Tuesday the AEC would verify whether the estimate - which was not the market price - by the Treasury Department was correct as it was a lot lower than the estimate by the Land Department.

He said there might have been irregularities in the sale as many bidders competed in the first auction, which was later cancelled. A Bt100-million deposit was also added to the next auction and three bidders competed offering similar prices for the plot.

Pojaman eventually won with a bid of Bt772 million to buy the plot on Ratchadaphisek Road from the Asset Management Corporation (AMC).

Swangchit said there had been two rounds of bidding in the auction of the land. The first round was an e-auction and the second was conventional bidding.

She said the deposit was increased from Bt10,000 in the first round to Bt100 million. The minimal amount for the first round of Bt10,000 was set to ensure there would be bidders.

Several groups paid the low deposit and indicated they would join the bid, but later wrote off the insignificant amount of money and did not participate in the first round.

Swangchit said there were four groups interested in the second round but only three joined the bidding.

She confirmed an earlier statement from the central bank that it did ask the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) for its opinion on the land purchase and whether it violated the Counter Corruption Act's Article 100 before signing the contract.

One NCCC member replied that ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had not directly supervised the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) which conducted the auction.

Neither did the FIDF accelerate the auction process, she said.

The central bank's assistant governor, Phairoj Hengsakul, who is also manager of the FIDF, said yesterday many bidders had forfeit their deposits in the first round e-auction because they did not want to disclose their names.

This was despite the aim of the central bank to use the e-auction process to ensure transparency, as bidders would be able to see others' bidding prices.

However, due to there being too few bidders in the first round, the bank decided to open a second round of conventional bidding.

Thaksin's legal adviser will today hold a press conference at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel to explain Pojaman's purchase.

Noppadol Pattama will also announce the possibility of Thaksin's return to Thailand.

Anoma Srisukkasem

The Nation