Presidential Corruption

Day 343, 07:46 • Published in Thailand Thailand • by Ealb

I write this article with a heavy heart. For all my objections to Rockman's governance, one point I had never had cause to fault him on was his integrity. As his defenders were always quick to point out, he was a model President in at least his refusal to loot the eThai treasury for his direct personal benefit.

Today, I truly fear that this has finally changed.

This morning, Rockman submitted a proposal to purchase Bangkok a Hospital of Q1 for 100k baht. This represents 83% of all eThai baht reserves. This Hospital would be worse than all other Hospitals in eThailand, but it would be in our strategic second line of defense. Less than a week ago, Rockman stated he had an offer to purchase a Q4 Hospital for 1/10th this price. Unless I am given very strong reason to believe otherwise, I can only conclude that Rockman has decided to take advantage of his sudden supermajority in Congress to loot the eThai treasury by purchasing a cheap Hospital from a confederate corporation who will then kick back the bulk of the purchase price to Rockman or his representative.Rockman: please respond to the accusation. Have you sunk to this? Are you looting the eThai treasury in anticipation of a possible TNT defeat in the Presidential elections? Are you looting the eThai treasury in spite of your critics? Are you, against all appearances, NOT looting the eThai treasury but instead "merely" making an incredibly ill-advised purchase of a mediocre Hospital for an outrageous price without any public discussion?

Please. Talk to us. And re-consider the purchase. It's not too late for you to call for this to be voted down.

UPDATE: I investigated the market. If we take current Gold prices, we're being asked to pay the equivalent of 400-500 Gold for this chintzy first aid station. If we assume that 20g of that is covering an export license, we're left with an optimistic price of 380 Gold for a Q1 Hospital... AND we're paying the company's entire export license fee. A few minutes of searching suggests that a Q1 Hospital normally goes for perhaps 20-22 Gold. We are being asked to pay a 380 Gold markup for a lowest-quality Hospital... plus the seller's ENTIRE license fee. We DO NOT need a Hospital in Bangkok so badly that we need empty our treasury to get an overpriced Q1 hovel.

I also investigated the seller. They originally planned to sell this Hospital domestically for 60 Gold. Even after they bought an export license, their current price is a markup of at least five times that. I can't see this being anything other than outright corruption on the part of Beloved Leader.