The Opposition Pheu Thai Party yesterday attacked the Defence Ministry's 2011 budget of Bt170.2 billion, alleging that a substantial portion of the funds would be used to return favours via procurement schemes.
The Parliament is due to vote on the budget today.
Anudit Nakorntap, Bangkok MP for Pheu Thai, told Parliament yesterday that the defence budget, which accounts for 1.5 per cent of the GDP, involved the procurement of military hardware and was therefore, prone to corruption.
Preechaphon Pongpanich, Pheu Thai's MP for Khon Kaen, complained that the Opposition did not have proper access to details of the budget. He said he was only given five minutes to scan the entire document, which was provided by Democrat MP Suwaroj Palang during a parliamentary deliberation on the defence budget.
The Pheu Thai MP also cast doubt over the purchase of 12 Grippen jets at the combined price of Bt35 billion, whereas the 24 Grippens bought by Romania only cost Bt50 billion. In other words, Thailand paid nearly Bt3 billion per jet, while Romania paid slightly over Bt2 billion per unit.
"In addition, there were irregularities in the procurement of 16 helicopters, which resulted in a lawsuit by companies that were left at a disadvantage," he said.
In response, Democrat MP Suwaroj said the defence budget document carried some classified information, so access was restricted.
Meanwhile, outgoing Army chief General Anupong Paochinda said the parliamentary checks-and-balances mechanism and the budget debate were good, but they should be based on facts.
He said spending 1.4 to 1.5 per cent of the GDP was not too high because most countries in the region spent about 2 per cent of their GDP on defence.
This defence budget is appropriate because there is a relatively low level of threats from outside, he said.
Anupong added that the 2011 procurement plans were consistent with the armed forces' long-term development programmes covering several years.
"It's not like the Army chief just got up in the morning and went to the market to buy this or that. Most of the military procurement plans are part of bigger packages that are thought out well in advance," he said.
On the controversial procurement of armoured vehicles from Ukraine, he said the Army was ready for scrutiny by the Office of the Auditor-General.
The Opposition also told Parliament that the Interior Ministry, Agriculture Ministry and Education Ministry were ranked the highest in terms of unscrupulous procurements. It also claimed that the Bt25.5 billion allocated to the PM's Office was far too much, especially since the funds will be used to do public relations work for the government via state-owned Channel 11.