Thai army spends over 7 million baht to test useless GT200 bomb scanners

The opposition Move Forward party is demanding an explanation from the army over its spending of more than seven million baht to hire the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) to test 700 GT200 bomb scanners, purchased by the army over a decade ago, to determine whether they work.


Party list MP Rangsiman Rome said today (Saturday) that he does not understand why the army has to test the fake scanners, which have already been proved completely useless.


“Anyone can test the scanner with just a screwdriver, without the need to pay 10,000 baht a piece” said Rangsiman.


Move Forward MP for Chachoengsao province JiratThongsuwan said that, about 14 years ago, several state agencies purchased several hundred GT200 bomb scanners, including 757 for the army alone, and they have all been discarded as useless.


He wonders whether the 7.5 million baht spending of taxpayers’ money was actually in an attempt to clear a few generals responsible for the procurement of the devices of any wrongdoing.


Assistant Professor Jessada Denduangboripant, of the Faculty of Science at Chulalongkorn University who tested the GT200 bomb scanners about 14 years ago, said in his Facebook post on Friday that the devices are just two pieces of plastic glued together with an antenna attached and no internal mechanism or battery.


He claimed that he was involved in previous tests, conducted by the Electrical and Electronic Products Testing Centre of NSTDA, in which the scanners failed to locate a test explosive device. Jessada also said that that there was no point in new tests on devices which should have been dumped or destroyed.


Defence Ministry spokesman, Lt-Gen Kongcheep Tantravanich, claimed yesterday that the new tests were recommended by the Office of the Attorney-General, becauseit needs solid evidence to be presented to the court to prove that the devices are useless in its case against the company and its executives for the sale of the devices to the army.


The army bought 757 GT200 bomb scanners at a total cost of 683 million baht.


In its Facebook post last night, NSTDA claimed that it had meticulously tested the bomb scanners, in accordance with international standards, and that the amount it charged is much lower than that which would be charged by a foreign lab.

Thai army spends over 7 million baht to test useless GT200 bomb scanners | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

The GT200 is a fraudulent "remote substance detector" that was claimed by its manufacturer, UK-based Global Technical Ltd, to be able to detect, from a distance, various substances including explosives and drugs. The GT200 was sold to a number of countries for a cost of up to £22,000 per unit, but the device has been described as little more than "divining rods" which lack any scientific explanation for why they should work.[1][2] After the similar ADE 651 was exposed as a fraud, the UK Government banned the export of such devices to Iraq and Afghanistan in January 2010[3] and warned foreign governments that the GT200 and ADE 651 are "wholly ineffective" at detecting bombs and explosives.[4] The owner of Global Technical, Gary Bolton, was convicted on 26 July 2013 on two charges of fraud relating to the sale and manufacture of the GT200[5] and sentenced to seven years in prison.[6]

GT200 - Wikipedia

Reckon the Thai army didn't get the memo.

one of my very favourite Thai fuk ups, amongst many.

Take heart in the fact that the Thai army saves a lot of money by using conscripts as household staff for the officers.

They just can't help themselves.

The trial confirmed what most credible agencies already knew, these scanners where bogus rubbish but the Thai apparently paid the highest price for them.

Their lies are truly wearying.

They're like delinquent children whose future is of no value and should only be ignored.

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Originally Posted by Hugh Cow

Take heart in the fact that the Thai army saves a lot of money by using conscripts as household staff for the officers.

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And in several instances are contracted out to take work in factories.

I rather think they want to kick this into the long grass of spurious bureaucracy so that a certain individual is not implicated in the purchase of this palpable rubbish.

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Originally Posted by misskit

Defence Ministry spokesman, Lt-Gen Kongcheep Tantravanich, claimed yesterday that the new tests were recommended by the Office of the Attorney-General, because it needs solid evidence to be presented to the court to prove that the devices are useless in its case against the company and its executives for the sale of the devices to the army.

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But they have already convicted based on solid evidence back in 2018...

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Sutthiwat Wathanakij, manager of AVIA Satcom Co. Ltd., on Wednesday was convicted of fraud for three GT200 sales contracts and sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment. He had already received a 10-year prison sentence last week for selling the bomb detectors to the Thai army under 12 other sales contracts worth 600 million baht ($18.5 million).

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Thai businessman convicted of selling fake bomb detectors | AP News

Go figure...

I recall from a Wiki leaks cable between the then US ambassador, Bangkok, and his State Dept. that he had learned Khunying Phorntip, hitherto a woman of great integrity and public renown, had, inexplicably, pronounced the scanners to be effective after an analysis by her team on being commissioned by the army for her report. I remember around that time she was promoted to head up the Forensic Dept. as a pre-retirement job.

It really is interesting that no-one within the civil service or army establishment responsible for procurement of the scanners has been charged.

Gosh, whoudda thunk it, eh.

Thailand is amazing in some ways. We have Anutin a construction engineer running the health ministry and Covid crisis without a clue, and then Khunying Pornthip a forensic doctor okaying the bullshit bomb scanners. Truly amazing. Nothing like the right people for the right job.:)

At least of they string up a couple of those baccy tin "bum" detectors they'll have cheap mobile telecoms and like here with a long enough thread will reach the oar powered subs?.Hoor powered subs are going through their see trials as we squeak.

The sales by an enterprising Brit were actually 100% corrupt khvnt detectors who never examine the goods just the thickness of the bung.

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Originally Posted by Troy

Go figure...

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$18,500,000 × .2 = $3,700,000

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Originally Posted by Norton

$18,500,000 × .2 = $3,700,000

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Only 20%?

PM says legal action already taken against local supplier of fake bomb detectors


Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told the Opposition today that the Ministry of Defence has already taken legal action against the local suppliers of the bogus bomb detectors, known as GT-200, seeking compensation estimated at about 747 million baht.


He was responding to a question raised, during the third day of the censure debate, by Move Forward MP Jirat Thongsuwan asking who or which organisation should be held accountable for the army’s procurement of the GT-200s from a British company between 2006 and 2009, in contracts worth several hundred million baht.


The prime minister said that 13 lawsuits had been filed against the local suppliers by the Defence Ministry and 5 have been concluded by the court, with 6 still in court and 2 others pending with the public prosecutors.


So far, 17 million baht in compensation and interest has been received from the suppliers and the ministry’s legal affairs section is closely monitoring the cases.


Most of the bomb detectors procured by the army were for use in the four restive southernmost provinces with mixed results. In January 2010, the British government banned the export of the ADE651 bomb detecting device to Iraq and Afghanistan, after discovering that device is a fake, and warned foreign governments that the ADE651 and GT-200 are infective in detecting bombs or explosives. The owner of Global Technical, the British producer of the devices, was later convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.


In 2018, a Thai businessman working for the local supplier, AVIA Satcom Company, was convicted on fraud charges and sentenced to nine years in prison for selling the fake devices to the army.


Tests conducted in Thailand and other countries proved the devices were ineffective. The head of the British GT-200 maker Global Technical, Gary Bolton, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2013 and ordered to pay over US$1.6 million.


PM says legal action already taken against local supplier of fake bomb detectors | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

Go after general Prayuth. He is the one that authorized the purchases, and promised all they were effective. Making him the primary culprit in the whole sad affair.

Which bit of we are living in a medieval society governed by tyrants according to the overriding principles of cronyism, nepotism and corruption without any protection from a rule of law applicable to all equally did you not understand? You septics are truly quite dull witted.

8 years in prison for ex-Yala governor over GT-200 bomb detector deal

Former governor of Yala province, Thira Minthrasak, has been sentenced to 8 years in prison without suspension, after being found guilty of malfeasance by the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases in connection with the purchase of fake bomb detectors, known as GT-200, more than a decade ago.


11 other officials who were involved in the deal, most of them retired, have also received sentences ranging from four years to eight months.


The National Anti-Corruption Commission found sufficient evidence to substantiate malfeasance charges against the 12 officials after the signing of two contracts to purchase the British-made GT-200 bomb detectors.


Thira is the first high-ranking official to be convicted in the fake bomb detector scandal, despite the fact that at least ten state agencies also bought the GT-200 or Alpha-6 brand devices, with the biggest procurer being the Royal Thai Army,which purchased 757 in 12 contracts worth a combined682.60 million baht.


Other buyers include the Royal Thai Navy, the Royal Thai Air Force, the Royal Thai Police, the Customs Department and the Central Institute of Forensic Science.


About 100 people at different state agencies have been implicated by the NACC in 20 cases in the scandal. Five other cases are being reinvestigated.


Each bomb detector costs an average of about half a million baht, with some costing almost a million baht. The devices do not, however, contain any suitable mechanism or technology and are merely plastic boxes with a magnetic card and an antenna.


8 years in prison for ex-Yala governor over GT-200 bomb detector deal | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

As I said, out of all the third world shithole corruptocracies, Thailand paid the most for these toy scanners.

The primary procurer was the RTA whose personnel were instructed to use the toys while on patrol down in Pattani etc……then the Brit fraudsters widened their scope and introduced the super-duper drugs detector scanner.

There is only one man still in office who shares responsibility for this scandal in Thailand but it seems he is inviolate. Possibly something to do with the imminent elections, there being no rule of law and that the entire press of Thailand are too frightened to publish the truth.

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Originally Posted by aging one

Go after general Prayuth. He is the one that authorized the purchases, and promised all they were effective. Making him the primary culprit in the whole sad affair.

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And while there at it . Find out who appropriated an australian companys goldmine ( chatree) thus maki g a mockery of the australia/thailand free trade agreement . Kingsgate have taken it to the i nternational arbitrater ,and rightly so. They got fucked over,the fta isnt worth the paper its written on. On this occasion i will agree with sausages. But he has likely not heard of this? Because it wasnt posted in pattaya mail or on here, where he seems to get all his info. Or mis info

I fail to understand why, before the army purchased the 'detectors', they weren't first tested at a 'Research and Development' facility?