All military purchases warrant close scrutiny
Faced with heavy criticism about his high defence budget, Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan says, “Every purchase of weaponry is made for the people.” But, it’s your money that the junta’s spending, dear reader
you have every right to scrutinise every major purchase. Military procurement procedures have consistently given us major flops, eg, the Chakri Naruebet, an aircraft carrier that’s been without aircraft for years and never sailed to quell a threat; an airforce observation balloon that can’t fly at combat height, or the GT200 bogus bomb detector, costing Bt1 million each, yet less effective than flipping a coin. Now, we want to buy tanks which no other country has faith in to buy.
The military should use zero-based budgeting, “in which all expenses must be justified for each period. ZBB starts from a zero-base …and allows top-level strategic goals to be implemented into the budgeting process” (source: Investopedia.com).
Thus, the military would define its top-level strategic goals each year, and allocate funds accordingly. For example, the Chakri Narubet has been without a mission for the past 25 years; ZBB could have saved us millions in maintenance and given us revenues from its sale. We might have foreseen the need to fight human trafficking, illegal
fishing, etc, and invested in controlling our maritime borders.
Start with national goals, and budget to achieve them. Use our money prudently, transparently and without commissions.
Burin Kantabutra
