The appointment of Wuttipong Pongsuwan as president of the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) may be scrapped if he is found to have a conflict of interest.

Wuttipong's selection was announced a few weeks ago. However, an ICT Ministry source told Database that the Sipa's board of directors are reconsidering his qualifications.

Wuttipong is a founder of a software company, called Software Park Ltd, and his wife is the major shareholder. The firm has awarded many government projects, including those of the ICT Ministry, Public Health Ministry, Commerce Ministry, Defense Ministry, and more.

Sipa, by the end of last year, had received 200 million baht under the Thailand Creative Economy initiative, part of the Thai Khemkhaeng stimulus package, to run the Digital Media Asia 2010 (DMA 2010) project to promote the software and IT human resources development to enable Thailand become a regional creative economy hub in three to five years.

Wuttipong, who at that time was the vice president of Sipa, has been in charge of this project and has appointed Thippayarat Taechayeunyong, his wife's sister, as manager of Sipa's DMA project.

The official appointment of Wuttipong as Sipa president was scheduled for last week. However, the source said the board is now reconsidering the decision and examining the qualifications of Wuttipong owing to his apparent conflict of interest.

Read full story::Sipa board of directors reconsidering presidential selection