Thailand introduces oversight to curb lavish spending on decorative street lamps

There’s been a response to a recent scandal involving an 871 million baht procurement of solar-powered street lamps designed with mythical kinnaree figures by the local administration of Racha Thewa, in Samut Prakan. Sweeping measures are being introduced to ensure transparency and accountability in future such projects. This conspicuous procurement resulted in misconduct charges being pressed against at least 40 implicated individuals, Bangkok Post reported.

Issaree Hunsacharoonroj, an ombudsman, expressed concern for these expensive projects, stating that their worth has yet to be proven.

“An investigation conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman has found there still are many local administrative organisations considering implementing similar procurements.

“The Office of the Ombudsman, Comptroller General’s Department [CGD], State Audit Office, Department of Local Administration and Ministry of Interior have therefore discussed measures to improve their accountability and transparency.”

To keep a check on the high-value purchases of street lamps, a new, shared database of median prices will be established by the CGD for agencies to consult during the implementation or inspection of such projects. Furthermore, local administrative organisations will be required to notify the Office of the Ombudsman before making any bulk orders for these items. Issaree added…

“A scientific approach will be carried out to assess the median prices of those sculptural street lamps which many local administrative organisations are interested in using to demonstrate their local identity.”

In addition, he voiced that while these lamps are principally designed to enhance street lighting after dark, their extravagant cost might be unjustified if regular street lamps already suffice for this purpose.

Speaking of promoting tourism by showcasing local identity, he suggested that decorative street lamps only be installed judiciously, focusing on important parts of a street.

He further revealed plans to distribute guidelines for sculptural street lamp procurement to all local administrative bodies and to instruct district and provincial administrative authorities to closely monitor any new procurements and report directly to the Ministry of Interior.