PM orders procurement rules

The guidelines would fix flaws in the procurement process, such as blurred terms of reference (ToR) for employers fix bidding requirements and cut unnecessary costs paid to middlemen, according to Ampon Kittiampon, director of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit.
The guidelines would also include “moral agreements” in ToRs, setting up an ant-graft subcommittee to scrutinise construction prices and improving the online government procurement (e-GP) system, Ampon said.
Previous procurement results recorded in the e-GP would be held by the Comptroller General’s Department (CGD) to update median prices of durable goods. The e-GP, meanwhile, would also publicise the names and details of bid winners and report summaries of procurements by each department.
Other suggestions that may be included in the guidelines are a reconsideration of graft-related laws and the registration and evaluation of bidding constructors. Infrastructure projects worth more than Bt5 billion and any other projects worth more than Bt1 billion should be considered international bids, authorities said.
If the procurement bill’s organic laws cannot be finished by the main law’s enactment, Prayut would exercise his absolute power by the interim charter’s Article 44, he added.
The guidelines and suggestions will be researched before being proposed to the Cabinet by this month.
Meanwhile, CGD director-general Sutthirat Rattnachot said 35 projects had been approved under moral agreements together with measures to increase project transparency, lessen government spending and increase public participation. Since 2015, the measures have helped the authority save about Bt69.67 million, he said.