A spokesperson for the State Audit Office (SAO), Sutthipong Boonnithi, announced that inefficient management of construction contracts during the 2023 fiscal year resulted in financial losses exceeding 30 billion baht.
On Monday, Mr. Sutthipong explained that these figures were derived from the office’s annual audit of over 14,148 projects and contracts across 9,426 public agencies throughout the country. The SAO identified budget management issues in 1,795 agencies, which represents 19.04% of the total audited.
The office reported detecting at least 30.83 billion baht in irregular expenditures. Mr. Sutthipong noted that the SAO offered conditional recommendations for improvement on 629 out of 8,575 financial reports that were audited for accuracy. Most issues revolved around significant expenditures with incomplete bookkeeping or errors in record-keeping due to insufficient clarifications, particularly regarding cash, land, and real estate transactions.
Additionally, the audit found that 2,638 out of 5,318 contracts—about 49.61%—did not comply with legal requirements or contractual obligations, amounting to damages of 666.47 million baht.
Mr. Sutthipong reported that the irregularities included violations related to market price estimations, vague contract terms, tax collection issues, and breaches of contract. Notably, flaws were identified in 151 out of 157 cases (96.18%) involving government agencies, including both central and provincial offices that were evaluated for their efficiency in using state funds.
The identified inefficiencies ranged from poorly prepared proposals for project execution to delays in project timelines, contributing to total damages of at least 30.16 billion baht.
Mr. Sutthipong also expressed concerns that the construction contract for the Rama II elevated road project might not yield satisfactory results. He suggested that all involved parties collaborate to reduce the construction timeline from eight months to five months in order to achieve better budget management.
This 10.5-billion-baht project has faced significant delays and is currently expected to be completed by November.
