Did you hear that a bunch of junta officials spent almost THB21 million of taxpayer cash on a trip to Hawaii to have an informal chat with American military leaders?
That’s right.
Deputy junta chief Prawit Wongsuwan and his entourage of 38 officials flew to Honolulu on Thai Airways, even though they they had military airplanes at their disposal, because they didn’t want to have to stop and re-fuel, which they would have had to with any of the government planes.
They were attending the ASEAN-US Defense Informal Meeting, which took place from Thursday to Saturday of last week.
The bill for the flight? A stiff THB 20.9 million including THB600,000 for “in-flight food and beverages” and a THB3.1 million for “processing fees.”
They must’ve been hungry. And thirsty.
The cost of the trip beyond the flight is not known. But it probably wasn’t cheap. Public response to the leaked airline bill has not been positive.
Maj. Gen. Kongcheep Tantravanich, Defense Ministry spokesman, told reporters that the spending was normal and in keeping with regulations but online commenters saw it as another example of outrageous spending and financial irregularity under the military regime.
Facebook groups have been criticizing the junta for overspending. One of the comments found on Facebook group called Stop Fake Thailand wrote: “They know we can’t do anything to them other than throw insults. We can’t investigate anything.”
Koncheep, however, said that the flight was necessary since military airplanes were incapable of a 19-hour flight without refueling, reported Khaosod English.
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