Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday set a one-month deadline for authorities to clear up the confusion surrounding the distribution of "deficient" chip-embedded national identification cards.
The problem came to light when the Interior Ministry, responsible for distributing and issuing the smart cards, and the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, responsible for procuring the card blanks, tried to blame one another for alleged irregularities.
"It has been found that the smart cards are not in conformity with the ministerial regulations on the issuing of identification cards," Abhisit said in his weekly address.
The two ministries have a month to clear up the matter, he said, pledging to avoid any inconvenience to the public, which might occur due to the delay in distributing and issuing the IC cards.
Interior Minister Chaovarat Chanweerakul has already formed a fact-finding panel to look into the matter, he added.
Interior permanent secretary Manit Wattanasen appointed his deputy Kwanchai Wongnitikorn to lead the fact-finding probe.
Kwanchai said his mandate was to uncover at the Interior's end why the cards were substandard. He had no jurisdiction over the ICT Ministry, he added.
Based on records, the Provincial Administration Department exercised its leeway to modify the cards with the aim of preventing forgery. But it remained unclear whether the card could be altered without having to amend the regulations first, he said.
He said his probe should be completed in one or two weeks.
Regarding the installation of the smart card computer system, Chaovarat reportedly let the Bt3 billion deal go ahead in spite of the allegation of irregularities.
The deal is at the final stage of scrutiny by the Budget Office before the leasing contract is signed.
The Budget Office's examination of the deal hinges on whether the ministry could resolve the seven cases of foul play in the bidding process detected by the Office of the Auditor General.
The Department of Special Investigation has been looking into the alleged irregularities since May but has drawn no conclusion yet.