The Bangkok Post:
Piyasvasti Amranand was axed as Thai Airways’ president and chief executive officer yesterday in a move he described as politically motivated.
THAI chairman Ampon Kittiampon told a press conference that although Mr Piyasvasti passed his performance evaluation, he had communications problems with the board.
Thirteen members of the 15-man THAI board of directors were present at yesterday’s meeting during which 12 of them voted to dismiss Mr Piyasvasti despite passing the performance evaluation test last year.
Mr Piyasvasti, also a board member, was also present at the meeting.
He said he sought an explanation from Mr Ampon about his dismissal during the meeting but was not given a clear answer.
Mr Piyasvasti said his evaluation score was 86% and he thought his removal from his post was politically influenced. Mr Ampon did not accept this.
Mr Piyasvasti said it was also possible that his firing resulted from someone who wanted his position, from his investigations into graft at THAI, and from his punishment of corrupt THAI staff who might have sought help from some powerful figures.
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He pointed out that he had brought THAI back from a loss of more than 20 billion baht to profits in two years and managed its costs including those of fuel toward a targeted profit of 6 billion baht this year.
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He said 10 of the 15 THAI board members were appointed by the previous government and of the 12 board members who attended yesterday’s meeting excluding Mr Piyasvasti, seven worked with Mr Piyasvasti since the past government was in office.
According to Mr Ampon, an evaluation committee headed by Areepong Bhoocha-oom, permanent secretary for finance, gave Mr Piyasvasti 4.3 points out of a total of 5 last year, compared with 4.6 points he got in 2010.
Mr Ampon admitted that THAI had posted a profit during the first four months of this year but Mr Piyasvasti had encountered problems in implementing the board’s policies.
He said communications between Mr Piyasvasti and the board were not unified while Mr Piyasvasti’s performance in many areas had not been in line with the direction set by the board.
“I feel strange. Personally, I remain doubtful about the board’s decision,” Piyasvasti said. He has asked for the board to clarify its reasons.
The THAI board’s 15-12 vote put an end to widespread rumours that Piyasvasti would be removed, which started when Yingluck Shinawatra’s coalition government was formed.
The firing is sure to spark controversy in the corporate sector because Piyasvasti had a high key performance indicator (KPI) rating of 4.3 per cent out of 5 per cent for this year, down slightly from last year’s score of 4.6 per cent.
Board chairman Ampon Kittiampon said the reason they discharged Piyasvasti was his lack of ”unity in communication” with the board and failure to push ahead some of the airline’s projects. Amphon denied that politics had anything to do with the president’s removal, adding that nine members of the board worked with the Democrat-led government.
Ampon said Piyasvasti had been a capable leader, working to keep THAI successfully ”level” as it survived a financial storm of Bt12 billion in losses in 2011. Piyasvasti also oversaw an improvement of the company’s financial structure and launched a fuel-hedging fund to reduce the airline’s costs from rising oil prices.
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In the first quarter of this year, net profits increased to Bt3.64 billion, up from Bt618 million year-on-year, while its gain from the fuel-hedging scheme was Bt909 million. Overall outlook for the year remains optimistic, thanks to reduced operating costs and improvements in the fleet over the next seven years.
Piyasvasti said his employment contract allowed the board to remove the president without any reason but that it must inform him one month in advance and pay six month’s salary in compensation.
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Piyasvasti started working at THAI in October, 2009. He served as Energy minister from 2006 to 2008 and chairman of Kasikorn Asset Management and chairman of the panel of advisers to the CEO of Kasikornbank. Prior to that, he was the secretary-general of the National Energy Policy Council.
BP: BP is flabbergasted that neither the Bangkok Post or The Nation in these articles pointed to the white elephant in the room which is wife.
The Nation a few months back on a different story:
Anik Amranand, wife of Piyasvasti, defended herself, saying that at the time of the transaction, she was not yet an MP. Also, her husband does not hold any shares in PTT, she said.
Piyasvasti lives with his wife Anik Vichiencharoen, who’s an active member of parliament in the Democrat party...
BP: She serves on the Board of Directors of the Democrat Party and has been an Abhisit adviser. From her parliamentary profile:
Advisor to the Leader of the Opposition (2005-2006)
Expert to the Member of the House of Representatives (2008)
Member of the Advisory Council for Democrat Party (since 2008)
Member of the House of Representatives, Democrat Party, Proportional Representatives, Changwat Cluster 6
BP: She became an MP at the 2011 election, but as you see she has been working officially for the Democrats for a while. This is her prerogative and BP is not suggesting any conflict of interest, but he was appointed by the previous government and his wife is a Democrat MP who has acted as an advisor to Abhisit. Are these not relevant? Heavens above, if the situation was reversed we would have congratulatory stories of a Puea Thai crony being removed after losing over 10 billion Baht last year,* but BP finds it odd in stories about whether he was removed for political reasons that there is no mention of his wife…..
[UPDATE: The answer to the question in the headline is a 'yes']
*Obvious factors of the loss are the high oil prices + bad economy so not necessarily down to him, but if he had been making record profits year after year then it would have made it difficult to sack him. He wasn’t though….
