PUBLISHED: 6 Sep 2024 at 04: 00
The Royal Thai Army has refuted claims made by an opposition party in parliament that the organization purchased disaster boxes for inflated prices.
The People’s Party ( PP ) raised the accusation earlier this week during the national budget expenditure bill’s scrutiny phase.
The army was accused of spending an unusually large portion of its resources on the purchase of approximately 10,000 disaster trays above the market price.
Col Richa Suksuwanon, a deputy spokeswoman for the military, yesterday said the food boxes purchased in a purchasing job using the fiscal year 2024 resources were made of SUS 304 food-grade metal steel, about 0.8 millimetres wet.
He claimed that the plates are long-lasting and can be used repeatedly, adding that each can be used three times per day.
The lowest rate quoted by the winning company in an e-bidding approach was 520 ringgit every, he said.
The winning rate was almost on par with how much two major cutlery manufacturers, Zebra and Seagull, demand for related trays at a discount, according to the lieutenant official.
Zebra’s standard rate for a comparable food basket is 650 baht every, whereas the agency’s promotional value is 515 baht, he said. With Seagull, the regular price for a similar holder is 619 rmb, while the discounted rate is 520 ringgit, he said.
Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn, a PP record MP, claimed during Tuesday’s argument that the army may have opted for boxes that were available for a wholesale cost of 360–380 ringgit apiece.
Col Richa refuted the state, saying such charges were for boxes made of lower-grade metal steel just 0.5mm in diameter.
He claimed that thinner-plastic plates are not strong enough to be used as food containers or tough enough to last a long time.
Mr. Wiroj, who has previously expressed disapproval of the defense budget, insisted that the defense budget’s 1.5 million baht reduction was justified by the mess boxes ‘ price alone. The following macroeconomic season will start the following month.
The business that won the bid to provide food plates to the army may not be able to develop stainless steel kitchenware under the terms of the MP’s opinion.
He had cause to believe that the success of the pay may have purchased the plates from a well-known flatware producer and sold them to the army.