Transport Minister Theera Haocharoen has taken steps to ensure that his ministry's budget allocation will be at least 60 per cent disbursed during the current fiscal year, thus helping boost government spending and buoy the sagging economy.

Last week, he instructed all of the ministry's agencies to speed up budget disbursement after learning only 26 per cent of the allocated budget had been disbursed in the first six months of the fiscal year, which started last October. The ministry's units include heavy spenders like the Highways Department, the Rural Roads Department and the State Railway of Thailand.

While telling them to speed up disbursement, he also instructed them to avoid striking special procurement contracts except in emergency cases, in order to ensure transparency.

"It's important to note that the fiscal-2007 budget is an exceptional case. Compared with previous fiscal years, the 2007 budget was approved very late, and it poses problems to state units to disburse the allocated amounts on schedule. However, we believe that by the end of this year's third quarter, disbursement will show a sharp increase, because several projects are now in the bidding process," Theera said.

Last week, the Finance Ministry instructed 17 state enterprises to speed up spending after finding that in the first six months of the fiscal year, only 14 per cent of their budget had been spent. It is believed that in times of lower private investment and falling consumer spending, more government spending lifts the economy.

Transport permanent secretary Chaisawat Kittipornpaiboon said his ministry recently informed the Finance Ministry of obstacles in disbursing budgets posed by the bidding process, which must be carried out with great care.

"To strike any contract, we need thorough checking," he said.

Rural Roads Department director-general Rapin Charutula said delays occurred mainly in the first quarter of a fiscal year. So far, his department has disbursed more than 30 per cent of its Bt17.8-billion budget.

"We'll speed up the disbursement, and there should be no problems [in meeting the minister's demand]," he said.

Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation