Anti-Corruption Officials Charge Ubon Officials Over Rigged Road Projects
Ubon Ratchathani's former mayor Rajana Kalpatinant and associates face anti-corruption charges for splitting 43.22 million baht in road projects into 26 contracts to avoid competitive bidding in 2006.
On July 9, 2026, Surapong Intrathaweorn, secretary-general of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), announced that the NACC board had found sufficient evidence of wrongdoing against Rajana Kalpatinant during her tenure as mayor of Ubon Ratchathani Municipality, along with associates. The case involves splitting road construction and improvement projects worth 43.22 million baht in fiscal year 2006 into 26 separate contracts of no more than 2 million baht each, designed to avoid competitive bidding and ensure unfair price competition.
Investigations revealed that during December 2005 to January 2006, Kriang Kalpatinant, then a provincial legislator and Rajana's husband, ordered municipality advisor Veera Vasuthada and engineering department staff to survey and design the road projects and break them into segments with individual project budgets not exceeding 2 million baht. This was intended to circumvent the competitive bidding requirement.
Rajana subsequently approved designs for 26 projects totaling 43.22 million baht and submitted them to the Department of Local Administration in two separate batches in January 2006—first 11 projects (18.71 million baht) and then 15 projects (24.51 million baht)—deliberately separating projects on the same roads to avoid joint submission.
Kriang coordinated budget allocation with the Department of Local Administration and regularly intervened in municipal affairs. Before the budget allocation reached the municipality, Kriang instructed Veera to oversee the bidding process and prepare procurement documents. Once budget allocation was received, the municipality immediately sought approval for sealed-bid procurement.
Kriang and his brother Kan Kalpatinant sought to ensure their company, Ubon Montri Construction Partnership—owned by Kan and his daughter Rattika Kalpatinant—or other companies controlled by their associates would be awarded contracts. They coordinated to distribute projects among their own businesses and allied firms to secure contracts with the municipality. On February 17, 2006, Ubon Ratchathani Municipality received the budget allocation notice.
