WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?

The likelihood of the government incurring massive debt with its economic stimulus over the next few years has accentuated the importance of easy access to data on its spending.

The public can currently use the Budget Bureau's website, http://www.bb.go.th, to find information on strategy, budget allocation, enacted budget, progress of budget distribution, emergency and tied-over budgets, and parliamentary budgetary review.

But Thailand's performance is ranked as poor by the Open Budget Index in 2008, which focuses on the accessibility of data to laypeople, based on questionnaires. The survey by the US-based International Budget Partnership, a research house specialising in fiscal policy, gave Thailand only 40%.

This compares poorly with the best performers - the United Kingdom (88%), France and South Africa (87%), New Zealand (86%) and the United States (82%).

The report said that the budget proposal gives the public a "fairly comprehensive" picture of the government's plan for taxing and spending for the coming year.

"The proposal should be available to the public and the legislature prior to being finalised, at least three months before the start of the budget year to allow sufficient review and public debate," it said.

But the lack of mid-year and year-end reports has created difficulties in tracking how the budget is being spent during the year. This undermines public accountability, the report said.

But Siwat Luangsomboon, a senior economist at the Fiscal Policy Office, said authorities had performed well in a Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability survey by the International Monetary Fund, which measured broader budgeting processes, ranging from comprehensiveness of spending types and transparency to fiscal risk management.

The Finance Ministry couldn't publish year-end and audit reports of the budget because of discrepancies between data on the government's electronic platform and the figures used by the Office of the Auditor General. The government has published a "budget in brief" on its website and as a booklet to make it easy for the public to understand, he said.

The ministry does not submit a mid-year report to parliament because of budget relocations between departments of government agencies.

"Nonetheless, the constitution calls for the government to inform the public every six months of transfers of budgets between agencies or for other purposes, by the end of the year," said Mr Siwat.

Vorapol Socatiyanurak, vice chairman for the Economic and Social Advisory Council, said the government should set up a committee comprising representatives of different social segments to monitor whether the budget is used properly over the next few years.

Dr Vorapol said the government's 800-billion-baht borrowing plan would push fiscal stability to the limit as it raised public debt to 60% from 40% of gross domestic product. "Thailand's tax revenue stands at 18% of GDP, much lower than Japan, which has a high percentage of public debt. The government cannot be careless with spending. Importantly, investment must give reasonable returns," he said.

"The fact that private and state enterprises operate with relatively poor competitiveness constrains fiscal revenue."

Meanwhile, Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, the owner of Economic Development Consulting Group, said fiscal data were comprehensively available, but scattered among different agencies.

He said the public could gauge whether the stimulus package is beneficial by looking at whether debt per GDP decreases.