Mr Sutthipong said yesterday (Aug 5) the figures came from the office’s annual auditing of over 14,148 projects and contracts from 9,426 public agencies nationwide. SAO found flaws in the budget management of 1,795 agencies, or 19.04%, reports the Bangkok Post.
The office detected at least B30.83bn of abnormal spending, he said.
Mr Sutthipong said the SAO provided conditional recommendations to improve 629 out of 8,575 financial reports being audited for accuracy. He said most were major expenditures with incomplete bookkeeping or mistakenly recorded without sufficient clarifications, and they often involved cash, land, and real estate properties.
SAO also found that 2,638 of 5,318 contracts, or 49.61% of the total cases, failed to abide by the law or contract with damages totalling B666.47bn, he said.
Mr Sutthipong said the abnormalities included measures of violation of middle market price estimation, unclear contract statements, tax collection, and contract violations. Flaws were found in 151 of 157 cases, or 96.18%, of government agencies, including at central and provincial offices, examined for efficiency in spending state funds.
The inefficiencies included proposals that were incomplete or poorly prepared for project operations, as well as delayed timelines, he said, adding that the total damage was at least B30.16bn.
Mr Sutthipong also indicated that the construction contract for the Rama II elevated road project may not produce satisfying results. He suggested all related sectors cooperate to shorten the working deadline for the elevated road’s construction from eight to five months to provide more efficient budget management.
The B10.5bn project, notoriously known for its delayed time frame, is expected to be completed in November.