Only 45% of the government's investment budget was disbursed during the first 10 months of fiscal 2024, far short of the 75% target, according to the Finance Ministry.
Patricia Mongkhonvanit, director-general of the Comptroller-General's Department, said as of Aug 9, total budget disbursement tallied 2.74 trillion baht, representing 78.7% of the total budget of 3.48 trillion baht.
Some 2.41 trillion baht of regular expenditure budget was disbursed, or 87.5% of the regular expenditure budget of 2.76 trillion baht.
For government investment expenditure, 324 billion baht was disbursed, accounting for 45% of the investment expenditure budget of 722 billion.
According to Mrs Patricia, government investment projects that signed purchase orders (POs) accounted for 67.4% of the overall investment budget.
The Comptroller-General's Department expects that while disbursement may not reach the target of 75%, it should reach a minimum of 70%, which will support the economy in the latter part of this year.
She said for the remaining months of this fiscal year, the department circulated a letter urging agencies to expedite procurement processes for ongoing projects, accelerating the acceptance of work for projects where contractors have already delivered the work in order to speed up disbursement.
In addition, the committee responsible for resolving the government's procurement and inventory management issues has relaxed the operational timeline to allow budget-receiving units to create POs for various projects under the fiscal 2024 budget more efficiently, aligning with the operational timeline of fiscal 2024.
The department is monitoring and expediting procurement, assigning special task forces to accelerate disbursement of the fiscal 2024 budget in both central and provincial offices across all provinces, said Mrs Patricia.
The department is supporting operations and providing guidance to all budget-receiving units to ensure disbursements align with spending plans, she said.
The delay of the 2024 Budget Expenditure Act until the end of April was a seven-month lag from the normal budget calendar.
