The State Audit Office (SAO) will establish a new section focusing on auditing the government's megaprojects this April, with the digital wallet scheme expected to be one of the first projects on its list.
Prajuck Boonyoung, the SAO auditor-general, said on Monday that the new section will start on April 1 as per the announcement by the State Audit Commission published in the Royal Gazette last month. It will be solely responsible for auditing large-scale government projects.
Mr Prajuck said the new section is being established because the SAO has been auditing numerous financial reports, and its officials have been struggling to scrutinise large government projects as they usually require more than one year, sometimes up to five years, to do.
He added that after the new section opens, it will begin probes into state mega initiatives such as the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Orange Line, which is causing disputes, and the Pheu Thai Party's digital wallet scheme as soon as the government starts working on it. The scheme is the party's flagship policy and will see 10,000 baht in digital money distributed to 50 million people over 16.
The policy is now being studied by a government sub-committee. Another mega project is the navy's procurement of a Chinese-made submarine.
According to the State Audit Commission announcement, the new SAO unit will be tasked with auditing governmental projects worth over 1 billion baht as well as public-private partnerships.