The Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) has sent a letter to former caretaker prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra asking her and her government to take responsibility for the 3.8-billion-baht costs incurred by the voided Feb 2 election, according to Isra News Agency (INA).
The OAG sent the letter to Ms Yingluck on Tuesday, informing her of the findings of an inquiry it conducted into the spending of state money on the poll.
In the letter, the OAG stated it had been notified by the Election Commission (EC) about obvious obstructions of the election.
The commission had warned Ms Yingluck that the election was likely to fail because of various problems, including blockades of candidacy registration venues.
The EC informed the OAG it had advised the government to draft a new royal decree to set a new date for the election, the INA said.
The commission had also called on the government on several occasions to pay close attention to political unrest, which was highly disruptive to the organisation of the poll.
Despite the EC's recommendation, the election was not deferred and so the EC was duty-bound to proceed with organising the election, which was later ruled void by the Constitutional Court because it was not completed within one day, as is legally required.
The court was also asked to decide who, between the EC and Ms Yingluck, had the authority to reschedule a new election, said the INA.
The court later ruled that Ms Yingluck and the EC chief were both responsible for the matter, saying that while the prime minister has a duty to sign the royal decree setting a date for a new poll, she must also take into consideration the EC's opinions.
"The OAG earlier expressed concern over the likelihood of the poll's 3.8-billion-baht funding being wasted because of the [political] unrest occurring at the time," the OAG said in its letter obtained by the INA.
The OAG cited the government's establishment of the Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) to enforce the emergency decree during the Feb 2 poll period as evidence the government was well aware of the unrest, said the INA.
In the end, the poll was not postponed despite advice from the EC. Its cancellation resulted in state budget being wasted, said the OAG in the letter.
"The OAG regarded the government's decision to press on with the poll as an 'unreasonable judgement' which resulted in losses [to the state] and should be deemed an unlawful act. The caretaker prime minister and the government must be held responsible for such losses," said the OAG in its letter.
The OAG also emphasised that it wanted the caretaker government and other agencies concerned to prepare sufficient measures to prevent a repeat of the same problems that occurred during the Feb 2 election in the new poll.
"If the government fails again to ensure that the new poll will run smoothly, it will definitely be its responsibility to compensate for new losses to the state budget," said the OAG in the same letter.
In the lead-up to the election, the EC struggled to arrange the poll after anti-government supporters launched a campaign to derail it.
The protesters blocked candidate registration venues and laid siege to post offices to prevent the distribution of ballot papers and equipment.
The result was that no voting was held in 28 constituencies in the South, which prompted the Constitutional Court to nullify the election.