The governor of Yasothon on Tuesday denied the province had received an order from the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) to launch a probe into irregularities in projects launched under the government's Pracharat policy.
Nikorn Suksai yesterday said the office has not instructed the province to investigate local projects which were funded by the state's Pracharat scheme, contrary to news reports which said it had ordered action.
The Pracharat policy is intended to harbour close cooperation among people, the government and the business sector to pursue sustainable development and boost local economies.
Mr Nikorn, however, said if there were any mistakes, they may have been caused by the management of each village which oversaw the projects rather than the province which only supervised the disbursement of the budget.
"The news comes from the media only. There has been no letter from the OAG as reported in the news. However, local administrative officials will follow up on the issue. If it's true, the province is willing to launch a probe," he said.
The Yasothon governor's comment came after the Isra News Agency said the OAG had ordered Mr Nikorn to set up a committee to investigate those projects after a random inspection indicated that 196 projects, worth around 31.1 million baht, in 156 villages had not achieved their goals. Mr Nikorn said he has not heard of any irregularities in his province other than in the media.
He said the province served as a central agency to grant approval for projects proposed by each village, but did not meddle with budget management which was handled locally.
The Pracharat scheme was approved by the cabinet in 2016 with 14.9 billion baht allotted to 74,588 villages. As for Yasothon, 177 million baht in budget was distributed to 1,008 projects in 885 villages.
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