The cabinet on Tuesday approved an additional budget of 45 million baht for the legal team handling Thailand's Preah Vihear case at the International Court of Justice.
The request from the Foreign Ministry came after the team spent most of the 120 million baht allocated by the previous Democrat-led government. Just 3.4 million baht remains in that fund, a cabinet source said.
In an expense report presented to the cabinet, the ministry said 20 million baht had been paid to foreign lawyers, 3.4 million to map-making experts and 24 million baht for travel expenses. It also cited spending on public relations and published documents for the public.
The source said Ms Yingluck criticised the ministry for seeking the additional funding. She said foreign ministry officials knew what the court case would cost, and should have asked for proper funding in the first place. The source quoted the premier as saying the government needed to save its supplementary budget for use in emergencies.