Democrat spokesman Ongart Klampaiboon said the Labour Ministry project should ask for cooperation from workers and not be imposed on them as a tribute to the King.

He questioned why new cards needed to be printed, saying normal postcards could have been used instead, which would have saved people Bt2 per card on postage.

Cards are priced at Bt5, after they were sold to the ministry for Bt2 each. However, the printing cost was only Bt0.40 per card, Ongart said, noting that the company that handled the project gained Bt5 million.

Acting permanent secretary for labour Surin Jirawisit said the project was not started by former labour minister Somsak Thepsuthin but by the SSO. He said the project would carry on but an investigation would be launched if it caused problems in the future.

Suthassanee Suebwongphaet, head of the Inspection and Evaluation Office under the ministry's secretariat, said the project was initiated by her office. The printing cost for each card was actually Bt0.47, not Bt2 as initially cited in news reports. She said the company handling the project was not close to Somsak and no money had been paid to the firm, which she did not name.

She said the project had not been forced on any officials or workers but their cooperation in buying the cards was expected. The number of cards printed was based on the number of beneficiaries in the social security scheme.

An official who asked not to be named said an extra one million cards had been printed and circulated among ministry officials.

"What's strange is that, unlike the first nine million cards, there is no written explanation of where the extra money generated will go," the official said.

A senior official with the provincial labour office in Rayong said business owners were forced to buy 80,000

cards from the office. Some distributed them to employees for free while many asked workers

to buy them.