A panel has been set up to examine the Education Ministry's school internet scheme after irregularities were found in a procurement agreement with an internet provider.
The examination order came after the internet provider complained the ministry defaulted on a payment of 60 million baht for the internet service under the Ministry of Education Network (MOENet) project, implemented since 1996.
Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin said he had assigned education permanent secretary Karun Sakulpradit to look into the matter. It was reported the firm had no contract for the service under the MOENet project.
Dr Teerakiat said the ministry will not pay the sum claimed by the company. If the firm demands payment, it may have to sue the ministry, he said, noting if the permanent secretary grants the payment, he would be liable to punishment.
"In this case, the investigation must look back to the past as to who paid who and under which conditions. I don't have details on that," said Dr Teerakiat.
He also asked officials to call for procurement documents and receipts in connection with the service for examination.
Problems like this partly stem from ineffective internet services, the minister said. Without a procurement contract, various services have in the past not been available, such as maintenance or a change of routers.
Referring to the probe into the MOENet scheme, Dr Teerakiat said he appointed Somsak Mitatha, chief of the ministry's Office of Information Technology Administration for Educational Development, to chair the panel. Outsiders with information technology expertise were also invited to join.
Various suspicions have arisen over the scheme, including why there was no procurement contract for the firm, he said. "Without the contract, how would it be possible to deliver and inspect the work?" he asked.
The negotiators who hired the service team were not executives from state agencies, the minister said.
Under the MOENet project, the ministry hired various internet providers, such as TOT, CAT Telecom and Samart Corp, to provide internet access to schools across the country.
In January, the ministry terminated the project, a collective platform of various internet providers, to enable schools to choose those best suited to them.
Peera Rattanawijit, deputy permanent secretary for education, said this will help to dramatically reduce the budget for internet services. The Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) used to pay over 2 billion baht a year for internet costs but this has since dropped to 300 million baht, he said.
The office of the Permanent Secretary–Ministry of Education can also shave its costs from 1 billion baht to 300 million baht, he added.
Dr Teerakiat said less than 1% of 30,000 schools attached to the Obec still have problems related to internet access.
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DE) is providing assistance by deploying fibre-optic cables to schools that cannot get online.
All are due to have high-speed internet this year.
