The Comptroller-General's Department is addressing the bottleneck in accelerating budget disbursement, aiming to push budget funding into the economy more swiftly in fiscal 2024.
According to Patricia Mongkhonvanit, the department's director-general, one obstacle to accelerating budget disbursement is the submission of appeals by unsuccessful bidders for government projects, which are substantial in number.
In some cases, the appeals lack merit, but once they are submitted, each appeal must be forwarded to the central committee for consideration.
After the appeals are lodged, progress on investment projects must pause until an outcome on the appeal is decided, she said.
There are two central committees that consider the appeals.
To address this issue, the department suggests establishing regional subcommittees for appeals to hasten the review process.
Mrs Patricia said the department also extended the disbursement duration for carry-over budgets from fiscal 2023, for contracts signed with the private sector.
Originally disbursement was scheduled to be completed by March, but it was extended until September.
Failure to extend this time frame would result in the remaining budget being forfeited, according to the law.
The carry-over budget for fiscal 2023 tallied 160 billion baht.
Within this budget, contracts worth 159 billion baht, or 99.5% of the total, have already been signed with the private sector.
Some 81 billion baht, or 50.6% of the carry-over budget, has been disbursed.
She said the draft budget for fiscal 2024 remains under consideration by the House of Representatives, having already passed the first reading.
The draft is being examined in detail by the budget committee.
The government anticipates enacting this budget into law by early April, marking a delay of about six months from the usual budget timeline.
The draft expenditure budget for fiscal 2024, totalling 3.48 trillion baht, means another year of deficit budgeting by the government.
The budget plan entails borrowing 693 billion baht to offset the deficit.
Significant expenditure aimed at stimulating the economy includes investment spending, which is set at 717 billion baht for fiscal 2024.
The Comptroller-General's Department set a target to disburse 75% of the investment budget for fiscal 2024, slightly lower than the previous year's target of 77.7%.