Thailand’s cabinet on Tuesday approved the purchase of 900,000 Android tablets for school students from China’s Schenzhen Scope with a budget of $63.3 million.
The approval is a sign of confidence that the tablets would be delivered in time for the start of the new Academic year in May.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced the deal, but said that it was changed from a government to government (G2G) contract to comply with bureaucratic purchasing regulations.
ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap said that originally the plan was for a G2G contract signed by the Ministry of Education and the Chinese government. However, he said the Chinese preferred for it the deal to be done directly with the private sector, hence the cabinet resolution to allow the ICT ministry to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on the purchase of the tablets with Schenzhen Scope directly.
The Education and ICT ministries had fought hard over control of the project.
Meanwhile, Senator Kamnoon Sidhisamarn announced on his personal Facebook page that going into such a G2G deal or an MOU without consulting Parliament first was unconstitutional.
Article 190 of the 2007 constitution requires that for a government to government contract or treaty, a framework for negotiations must be approved by parliament and public consultations must be held beforehand.
Unless due process is followed before the contract is signed off, the Senator said that he would be pushing for impeachment of the entire Cabinet in due course.