Transport minister orders agencies to bring costs in line with special panel's criteria
Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt has ordered agencies involved in the government's Bt2-trillion infrastructure loan bill to make sure their project costs are in line with the suggestions made by the government's special committee on the programme, a
Affected agencies are the State Railway of Thailand, the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, and the Highways, Rural Roads, and Marine departments.
The committee’s suggestions included advisers’ fees and raw-material costs, and the agencies’ estimates for actual projects should use the same criteria. The average consultant fee should be 2.5-3 per cent of the total project value.
“Any investment in a big project should not be realised only on saving costs on consultant fees, but also work details. Projects that require intensive operations, such as tunnel boring, will have high consultant fees, as the damage will be very costly if any mistake occurs,” Chadchart said.
Meanwhile, Democrat MPs on the House of Representatives committee vetting the loan bill will today propose reducing the loan to Bt200 billion.
Democrat party list MP Korn Chatikavanij said the reduction would be proposed on the grounds that the government finance only projects that are ready, while those projects for which the government or state agencies are not ready to implement should be removed from the scheme until later.
He said the government should use the 2013 fiscal budget to conduct project-feasibility studies that have not yet been done. It should not be too hasty in seeking Bt2 trillion in loans as it should mainly use the annual fiscal budget to finance infrastructure projects.
The opposition will seek a Constitution Court ruling on whether the bill is unconstitutional after it is passed.
Democrat Songkhla MP Jua Ratchasri, a committee member, said projects that were not ready for implementation included the high-speed-rail project, as there had not been studies on the design of the trains.
