Contracts for new investment projects worth 250 billion baht have already been signed following the enactment of the fiscal 2024 Budget Expenditure Act, according to the Finance Ministry.
Deputy Finance Minister Krisada Chinavicharana said during the delay in signing the act, government agencies with investment projects initiated their procurement processes, preparing terms of reference (TOR), issuing invitations for bidding and opening project tenders.
Only the signing of contracts is pending, he said.
Once the act came into effect, projects that completed the bidding process and secured successful bidders could sign contracts immediately.
In addition to the signed contracts, Mr Krisada said there are projects that completed the bidding process and obtained successful bidders, but have not yet signed contracts, totalling around 70 billion baht.
An additional 160-170 billion baht in the procurement process is at the TOR stage.
The Budget Expenditure Act came into effect on April 26, delayed by seven months based on the normal budget calendar because of political challenges.
The expenditure budget for fiscal 2024 amounts to 3.48 trillion baht, of which government investment accounts for 717 billion baht, representing 20.6% of the expenditure budget.
He said the Comptroller-General's Department set a target for investment spending disbursement of 75% of the total investment expenditure budget.
The department organised several teams to monitor various departments with investment budgets, provide consultancy in case of procurement issues, and expedite the budget disbursement of various agencies.
The department also circulated letters to various government agencies with investment projects in order to expedite investment budget disbursement.
As part of these measures, the department accelerated the delivery schedule for one-year investment projects for project owners, aiming to ensure faster project completion and disbursement by September 2024.
For multi-year commitments that constitute new investment expenditures, the contracts should be finalised by May 2024, said Mr Krisada.
He said if there are anticipated budget items that cannot be signed in fiscal 2024, the project owners should inform the Budget Bureau in an effort to jointly find solutions to ensure the most efficient budget management, preventing budgets from lapsing at the end of the fiscal year.
Budget lapsing refers to the cutting of budgets for planned projects where the contracts cannot be completed within the fiscal year.