E-bidding saves Thai government's budgets

BANGKOK, June 2 (TNA) - The Thai government has saved up 20-30 billion baht in state budgets over the past 4-5 months when the administration has adopted an e-bidding system in its new procurement projects. Speaking at a workshop organised in Bangkok on Thursday, Thai Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong raised the issue, saying that the idea to invite the private sector to jointly follow up government investment plans is also considered positive because it could help preventing malpractices as the government has to spend up to about 500 billion baht on public projects yearly. The minister pointed out if corruption takes place for just 10 per cent of the mentioned amount, the Thai government could lose an opportunity to spend in other national development projects, stressing that the e-bidding system for the government's new procurement projects has helped prevent corruption and saved state budgets because government officials and bidders did not need to meet face by face. Manas Jamveha, Director-General of the Ministry of Finance’s Comptroller General’s Department, then acknowledged that Thursday's workshop, entitled "Integrity Pact", is aimed at informing government agencies concerned and observers of preparing the principles of the "Integrity Pact" and allowing them to exchange opinions. Manas revealed that the Thai government has resorted to the "Integrity Pact" on 26 projects initiated by 24 government agencies with their combined value of about 55.9 billion baht during the 2015-2016 fiscal years. Echoing support for the "Integrity Pact", Pramon Sutivong, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, told the seminar, meanwhile, that the idea and practice of ridding corruption among government agencies have been used in more than 20 countries now. (TNA)