Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva has blasted the government's 350-billion-baht water management and flood prevention scheme, saying it is poorly planned and plagued with irregularities.
Mr Abhisit made his remarks yesterday in the wake of a former flood relief expert who was a consultant for the current government filing petitions against its water scheme.
Last Thursday, Uthen Chartpinyo, former chairman of the flood drainage committee under the Flood Relief Operations Command of this government, filed a petition with the Administrative Court for an injunction to be imposed against the 350-billion-baht borrowing scheme for the water management package.
Mr Uthen said in his complaint the package lacked transparency and could open the door to corruption.
Mr Abhisit said many projects in the package had not undergone feasibility studies and scrutiny.
He said there could be problems about transparency and project readiness.
The government has selected six finalists but has not yet picked the winner to implement the projects.
Its water management committee insists the scheme is running on target.
Mr Abhisit said he believes many projects under the scheme will not be ready to be implemented when the government borrows money to fund them.
He said under the government's executive decree permitting the Finance Ministry to borrow 350 billion baht to fund the water management and flood prevention scheme, the borrowing must take place within June this year.
He doubted that many projects under the scheme would be ready for implementation within that deadline.
Mr Abhisit said the government seemed to claim that the actual borrowing could wait but it would be against the nature of an executive decree which is only issued for urgent undertakings.
He pointed out that the government legalising the borrowing as an executive decree could be viewed as an attempt to dodge scrutiny under normal budgetary laws.