Chiang Mai budget misallocations exposed

Public spending priorities in Chiang Mai have come under sharp scrutiny after a parliamentary seminar revealed that local administrative bodies spent roughly 100 million baht on an annual flower festival, while allocating a paltry 170,000 baht from a 2-billion-baht budget to tackle the province’s chronic PM2.5 air pollution crisis.

The revelations were made on Saturday during the ‘Hack Budget 70 Chiang Mai’ seminar, organised by the House committee studying budget allocation and monitoring.

The event was chaired by Rukchanok Srinork, a People’s Party list-MP and committee chairperson, and drew strong turnout from civil society representatives, private sector leaders, academics and local residents seeking to enhance civic oversight of public expenditure.

Rukchanok noted that Chiang Mai serves as Northern Thailand’s hub for commerce, education, tourism and public administration, receiving substantial annual funding across central, regional and local levels.

Local taxpayers continue, however, to face significant barriers to accessing information and lack efficient mechanisms to track and audit how their tax money is being spent.

Highlighting glaring discrepancies in local governance, Rukchanok singled out the Chiang Mai Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO) for its annual ‘Charm of Chiang Mai Flower Festival’. Held every November, the event consumes approximately 100 million baht per year and has consistently been awarded to the same group of contractors.

In stark contrast, the PAO set aside no direct budget at all to combat forest fires and PM2.5 haze, a severe environmental and public health emergency that has cripplingly impacts on the health and economy of residents each year.

Concerns were also raised over the PAO’s approval of more than 200 projects under specific, non-bidding methods capped at under 500,000 baht each, bypassing standard public procurement procedures.

The committee’s chairperson also turned the spotlight on the Chiang Mai Municipality, which operates on an annual revenue and expenditure budget exceeding 2 billion baht.

Despite its massive financial footprint, an audit of the municipality's disaster response budget revealed that only 170,000 baht was earmarked specifically for PM2.5 mitigation.

The budget monitoring panel expressed hope that the seminar would raise civic awareness and encourage residents actively to scrutinise local spending, ensuring that future budget allocations directly align with the pressing needs of and maximum benefit to the local populace.