An anti-corruption watchdog had flagged irregularities in the construction of a Bangkok skyscraper that collapsed in an earthquake last week and killed at least 11 people, the head of the monitoring group said.
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 today for 76 more people feared trapped under the rubble of the unfinished 30-storey tower for Thailand's State Audit Office.
The unfinished tower was the only Bangkok building that completely crumbled when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar on Friday and rattled neighbouring countries.
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.
Italian Thai Development and China Railway Group did not immediately comment when contacted by Reuters.
The audit office has said that it will investigate the cause of the building collapse. It did not answer e-mailed questions from Reuters whether it had threatened to cancel the construction contract.
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, Mr 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."
Mr 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.
Share prices of ITD tumbled 30% when markets opened today against a benchmark drop of 1%.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra ordered government agencies on Saturday 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.
Han Zhinqiang, China's ambassador to Thailand, said yesterday that China would cooperate in the investigation.
