The cabinet has approved an additional budget of 512.5 million baht for the construction of the new parliament complex on Kiakkai Road.
However, the cabinet rejected a request for more than 8.1 billion baht for the information technology and utilities infrastructure, calling for more details to ensure there would be no repetition of a previous scandal involving the purchase of overpriced items such as the wall clocks in parliament several years ago.
Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Tuesday the cabinet approved the Secretariat of the House of Representatives' request for the additional funding which covers construction costs, and supervision and consultation.
The cabinet Tuesday decided that the meeting room for the Senate and offices for parliament personnel must be completed by December this year and the meeting room for the House of Representatives and areas linking buildings in the complex must be finished by March 2019.
Construction of the entire complex must be complete by December 2019, Lt Gen Sansern said.
National Legislative Assembly (NLA) president Pornpetch Witchitcholchai previously said authorities had earlier assessed the cost of building the new parliament building at 18 billion baht. But he said the construction contract, signed five years ago for 12 billion baht, omitted certain equipment.
Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction Plc was hired in 2013 as the contractor for the 12-billion-baht project, which has experienced repeated delays.
It was originally scheduled to be completed by 2015. However, issues such as the late handover of the land plot, the challenging removal of soil, and difficulty of finding timber materials have pushed the project's deadline to 2019.
