Thai Editorial: Will We Get Value For Money From Spending Plan?

[webfact]

EDITORIAL
Will we get value for money from spending plan?
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The government is borrowing heavily to finance infrastructure projects; while these are necessary, we must ensure that the process is transparent.

The government is planning to spend Bt2 trillion on infrastructure projects. It is imperative that the process to pass the bill for this massive spending programme is transparent. The programme will create a debt burden that will last for the next 50 years.

The government has, however, so far been unable to address the public's concerns and questions over details of the infrastructure spending. Although everyone agrees with the necessity to improve logistics development projects, economists, opposition politicians and academics have expressed concern over whether the money will be well spent. The main issue is that the government has not provided enough details to convince the public that its money will serve the purpose for which it is intended.

Worse, the government has chosen to ignore the conventional budgetary approval process by issuing an off-budget draft bill, which will result in limited chances to examine the spending process. The conventional fiscal budgetary process, on the other hand, allows for a more transparent process in scrutinising the government's spending plans.

It is obvious that Thailand has to improve its infrastructure and logistics systems to support sustainable development. Unfortunately, many urgent infrastructure projects have been delayed because of political factors such as regular changes of government or disagreements between different ministries.

But the process to approve funding for such massive projects must be explainable to the public. In particular, the details of each project and its specifications must be fully revealed. The procedure to select bidders and the rationale behind each project should be able to convince the public that the project will serve to benefit the majority.

Feasibility studies for projects under the Bt2-trillion plan have yet to be made available to the public. In addition, the government has yet to make available the details of project management to ensure transparency and good governance in all operations.

Projects on this scale must pass environmental assessments because they will certainly have an ecological impact. But the public has yet to be engaged in the discussion. For instance, there are questions over whether it is imperative to build an expensive high-speed rail link to connect Bangkok and Pattaya.

While most of the projects are undoubtedly necessary, the government doesn't have to finance all of them by creating additional public debt. The government, in fact, has various options - for instance, by encouraging private-sector participation to ease its fiscal burden, as in the case of the Bangkok Mass Transit System.

However, for the massive Bt2-trillion package, the government has not even disclosed the necessity of each project and has not explored alternative finance options available to meet the public interest. Instead, it has hastily pushed forward the bill, which will be financed entirely by borrowing. This has raised questions over the rationale behind some of the projects. They would be more explicable if they could be shown to be worthwhile investments that will yield long-term benefits and even profit, and not entirely rely on borrowing and thus place an unmanageable burden on the public purse.

Some critics charge that the growth projections based on the borrowing suggest that the projects do not stand on sustainable and solid foundations. This massive level of borrowing could have serious effects in the long term. The Public Debt Management Office hints that this amount of borrowing could raise the country's public debt to gross domestic product ratio to 60 per cent. The debt crises in some countries in the European Union, such as Greece, are a result of excessive borrowing. The negative social and economic effects will last for many generations.

It would be a disaster if the planned spending programme does not produce the results the government has promised. It would be shameful if our generation creates an unnecessary debt burden for future generations to shoulder for the sake of our greed and short-sighted ambitions.


-- The Nation 2013-03-21

[arthurboy]

One word:

Hopewell.

[pitrevie]

One word:

Hopewell.

Two more, transparent and hub, any time I see either used by a government spokesmen I count the spoons.

[MaxLee]

WillWe get ZERO TO MINUS 999999..... value for money from spending plan, that has been ripped off from the Thai nationals and residing foreigners, at the expense of filling the politicians pockets

Edited March 21, 2013 by metisdead
: Bold font removed.

[noitom]

There is no such thing as "value for money" in Thailand. There is always a shorting of value to work out a better skim, vig, or hustle. Thailand is oriented towards a "lipstick on the pig" mentality and it pervades society. Just look at the drawings and brochures for property sold on the come against "early buyer money" and that money used to fund the partial completion of a project. Thais are very good at putting lipstick on the pig. What is the Thai smile all about? Just think about it.

[chainarong]

I have little confidence in this governments ability to do anything short of talking, to bring any project to a final completion, in saying that I can see projects incomplete and rampant skullduggery at executive level., the High Speed gravy train awaits at platform 13.

[ChrisY1]

This whole "off budget" loan affair has misappropriation smeared all over it.....if 50% of the proposed projects get anywhere near completion over the next 5-10 years without further borrowings....it would nothing short of a miracle.....unfortunately, I can see this money gone in no time.

[Crushdepth]

50 years of debt...well if you're going to stick state funds in your family's pockets, you may as well go for the whole hog.

[Pimay1]

50 years of debt...well if you're going to stick state funds in your family's pockets, you may as well go for the whole hog.

Well it's only March. They have nine more months to keep piling on the debt with almost a weekly new scam scheme. And that's only for this year.

[hellodolly]

I have little confidence in this governments ability to do anything short of talking, to bring any project to a final completion, in saying that I can see projects incomplete and rampant skullduggery at executive level., the High Speed gravy train awaits at platform 13.

It will be implemented and followed through with the same care to detail as the building of police stations has been.

The sad part is Thailand's infrastructure could do with a massive overhauling.

[MaxLee]

There NEVER was anything like an infrastructure plan for Thailand. Just a bunch of vague maintenance of century year old cable crap wiring and cheap sand filling of roads...

Btw... There's still no 3G o sufficient functioning Internet broadband service without getting disconnected all the time at peak hours...

Thailand's infrastructure development is waaaaaaayyyyyyyy behind thanks to those money hungry pigs in politics who reap the benefits aka tax payers money to fill their stomachs and pleasures

[JetsetBkk]

One word:

Hopewell.

Where did they get their ideas from?

.

[bigbamboo]

Is he having a laugh?

[maidu]

Answer to the headline: NO

_______________________________________

Here's how a phone conversation might have gone between Yingluck and her brother, a few days before the proposed 2.2 trillion gut-busting budget was announced:

Fugitive: You know, your term may not get extended.

proxy PM: Yes, I know. I could be out of the PM's chair sooner than planned

Fugitive: Yes, and for that reason, we've got to start hatching plans to amass as much money as possible. What's the highest baht amount we can propose for infrastructure improvements (cough, ha ha, cough) - which the newspaper goons won't freak out about? Do you think they can stomach 3 trillion baht? (chortle)

proxy PM: Well, let's tone it down a bit, how about 2.2 trillion.

Fugitive: Ok, we and our contractor friends (giggle) can still make some handsome dividends from that.

proxy PM: I got to go now, there's a half price sale at the Mall, on whitening cream.

Fugitive: Oh, and don't forget my passport, and try to get me a diplomatic one with gold trim, ok? bye bye.

: bye bye

Edited March 21, 2013 by maidu

[monkeycountry]

First of all, how can anything be approved without first publishing an operational budget. In other words a budget that tells us how many passengers at what ticket price is needed for the operational part of the high speed trains to break even. High speed train tickets elsewhere in the world are expensive, often close to plane tickets, so few Thais (and almost no red shirts) will be able to afford them, which will lead to few passengers and a huge loss each year - on top of the loan repayments.

Secondly, it will not be Thai or foreign tax payers (the middle and upper classes) who will be hurt by these populist policies in the long term. It will be the poor, ie. all the red shirts who are supporting these very populist policies. If Thailand continues borrowing money, increasing it's debt, a day will eventually come (10-20 years from now) where Thailand can no longer borrow money abroad, just as has happened in the EU. However, noone is coming to bail out Thailand, as the Thai currency and economy matters little to the rest of the world.
By then all public facilities such as hospitals, schools, transport and utility subsidies etc. will either close or scale down their services, and many public servants will be laid off. Many taxpayers will be able to afford private schools, private hospitals, taxi's, utilities etc, but the poor (red shirts) will not, so there will no longer be schools, hospitals etc. for them, or the standard will be so bad, that it won't be worth the trip anyway. Pattaya will be even more flooded with young Isaan girls by then.

For those of you who are in doubt, check the news, and see for yourselves if it is the rich or the poor who are demonstrating on the streets of bankrupt european countries.

Edited March 21, 2013 by monkeycountry

[Crushdepth]

Mega project + mega corruption...haven't we been down this road before?

[Arkady]

Will we get value for money from spending plan?

No.

[MaxLee]

Mega project + mega corruption...haven't we been down this road before?

It never ends, why would the greedy pigs in the government stop the same old corruption agenda that has sucked the money out of the Nations citizens and residing foreigners for the ages?

Dictatorship philosophy: "Corruption works -> cheat harder, cheat stronger"...

... so there you have it folks, you're in, whether you like it or not..,

[chrisrazz]

Even if there is transparency and zero skim, no one will ever believe it anyway.

[AleG]

It's obviously meant to plunder as much as possible in the shortest time. Instead of going full steam ahead with multiple high speed rail projects and whatnot it could be done by first making one line using yearly budgeting to see how it works and then expand.

But nooo... all in one go, with only one firm to run all the high speed trains and a 50 year (at least) debt to pay for it.

The PTP crooks will get rich today and the country's children and their children will be footing the bill.

Edited March 21, 2013 by AleG

[Locationthailand]

This tells you the absolute truth of the matter. This just shows this govt is all about scams and deliberately doing so. Deliberate misrepresentation with intent to defraud. This is a criminal matter in itself but will no one bring these runaway thieves to account?

"... the government has chosen to ignore the conventional budgetary approval process by issuing an off-budget draft bill, which will result in limited chances to examine the spending process..."

[chrisrazz]

"It is obvious that Thailand has to improve its infrastructure and logistics systems to support sustainable development. Unfortunately, many urgent infrastructure projects have been delayed because of political factors such as regular changes of government or disagreements between different ministries"

I would like to replace the word 'regular' with 'constant'. As for ministerial disagreements, this to me means infighting over who gets to skim first.

The article then goes on with the scare tactic of mentioning Greece. Well, apart from the rampant corruption throughout all levels of government, the differences between the Greek and Thai examples are massive. Firstly, this is infrastructure spending, which if well planned will stimulate the economy (I don't want to go into the politics of these specific projects). The Greeks borrowed in order to keep a afloat an economy where too many of the country's citizens were living on the public purse, on the dole or in the public service sector, and very few were paying tax. They also lied about the state of the balance sheet in process. The Thai situation differs, though bloated and unprofessional, the public 'serviice' (I reserve judgement on the use of the word 'service') is hardly overpaid. There is very little in the way of social security here and no unemployment benefit.

Finally, it is up to the opposition and the media to provide the scrutiny that will keep the bastards honest. The problem here lies in political bickering and media bias, rather than looking at the merits of particular proposals. If the government are using a procedural shortcut to force their wishes, that then indicates a problem within the process itself, and like many things Thai, there is always a way to circumvent correct process as whoever holds power uses it. Continual change of government, for whatever reason, has led to numerous constitional rewrites that are not about democracy at all, but seek to favour vested interests.

[maidu]

Here's my personal experience with just one isolated example of newly built infrastructure in Bkk. I needed to get from Bkk to the Suwanbum airport. I found there was a modern train service from town. To get to the station, I went to the nearest subway access. The two places were about 250 meters from each other. It was raining, and I had to cross a busy street where no drivers wanted to slow or stop. I had a heavy suitcase. Climbed up long flight of stairs to train station. I was soaked, so the gargantuan interior, with its giant Air conditioners rumbling felt like an ice box. Shivering in that metal collosus of a building, as big as several 747 jet hangers end to end. I was the only one in there in the middle of the day. After searching around (no signs) I found a living person, and she helped me, and things were ok after that (though still shivering for another 20 minutes).

Thai engineers are to municipal planning what New Guinea natives are to escalator mechanics.