Activist Srisuwan Janya has urged the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the government’s 7.1-million-baht expenditure to create “stickers” for the Line mobile-messaging service to promote the government’s “12 core values,” saying the price tag was too big.
Mr Srisuwan, secretary-general of the Constitution Protection Association, on Tuesday submitted a petition to the NACC asking it to probe the government's use of a budget to make the cartoons that push its morality and traditional-values campaign.
The Information and Communications Technology Ministry created Line stickers to promote the government's 12 core values. (Photo by Seksan Rojjanametakun)
He asked the anti-graft agency to investigate the median price for the creation of the "stickers," which are sent with chat messages via mobile phones and computers, claiming the cost was unusually high. He said the spending actually contradicted the moral and ethical values the stickers were meant to promote and did not follow proper procedures, Thai media reported Tuesday.
His petition was lodged with Pol Col Ittipol Kijsuwan, assistant to the NACC secretary-general.
Mr Srisuwan said the Information and Communications Technology Ministry has carried out the campaign by urging online users to download the free stickers as a New Year's gift for Thai people. The median price for creating the Line sticker was set at 7,117,353 baht.
However, the government had not provided details regarding how that figure was calculated. He alleged there might have been irregularities in the setting of the median price.
The government earlier defended its 7.1-million-baht Line sticker investment
Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Yuthavong said the spending to make the Line stickers was worthwhile. He expected the stickers, in which cartoon characters illustrate the virtues, would be a hit.
Information and Communication Technology Minister Pornchai Rujiprapa earlier said the spending, cut from 7.8 million baht originally, was appropriate when taking into account Line's popularity. There are 33 million registered Line accounts in Thailand that send about 40 million messages a day on the platform.
However, critics say the government is spending too much for too small a likely gain and question whether the simplistic messages in the stickers, such as "Stay focused" and "Sufficiency," will have any effect on people's behavior.