Agencies lashed for slow disbursement
The government’s budget disbursement remains slow, with only 1.01 trillion baht or 39.2% of the 2.575-trillion-baht total budget disbursed as of last Friday.
A Budget Bureau report to the cabinet yesterday noted only 65.7 billion baht or 15% of the investment budget had been disbursed. The figures were much lower than the 41.8% required by the government.
However, disbursement of the regular budget fared better, with 950 billion baht or 44.8% disbursed, outstripping the government’s target of 43.99%.
Budget Bureau director Somsak Chotrattanasiri said all state agencies were required to improve their disbursement of investment budgets to meet the target of 87% at the end of the fiscal year.
The government will use efficiency of budget disbursement to evaluate the performance of the head of each state agency after the fiscal year ends on Sept 30, he said.
Yesterday the cabinet also told all state agencies to transfer budgets slated for other purposes to spend on government projects to stimulate the economy and ease the impact on low-income earners.
They were also told to tighten up on trips abroad and purchases of foreign goods and services.
Mr Somsak said the report by nine state agencies that accounted for an investment budget of 244 billion baht in fiscal 2015 showed they disbursed only 31 billion baht or 12.7% as of last Friday.
Five agencies said they could manage their disbursement to meet the 87% target as required by the government, while the rest said they could disburse only about 84%.
Mr Somsak said it was the first time the government was quite serious about speeding up disbursement to help the economy in the second quarter, as normally budget disbursement is accelerated in the third quarter.
The budget for fiscal 2015 started last Oct 1 was for public spending of 2.575 trillion baht, an increase of 2% from the fiscal2014 budget.
Of the total, 2.03 trillion baht or 78.8% is set for expenditures, 450 billion or 17.5% for investment and the rest for Treasury reserves and debt repayment.