MP Challenges Digital Committee Over Passport Project Ethics Rules
An MP filed a complaint alleging the National Digital Economy and Society Committee failed to follow its own ethics rules when drafting procurement conditions for Thailand's new electronic passport system, potentially invalidating the billi
On September 22, 2026, Democrat MP Kaladee Leaopairojn announced progress on her complaint to the Comptroller General's Office seeking investigation into seven issues surrounding the TH-AI Passport electronic passport system procurement project. She confirmed that the Department of Accounting has verified the project failed to comply with a required moral agreement clause stipulated in the procurement conditions.
The core problem, Leaopairojn explained, stems from the Terms of Reference drafted, approved, and overseen entirely by the National Digital Economy and Society Committee. The TOR explicitly requires bidders to sign a moral agreement for projects valued at 1 billion baht or more, yet the committee itself did not do so.
"The question is: why did the committee draft and approve the TOR but then fail to follow its own criteria?" Leaopairojn said. "This amounts to the agency breaking rules it created itself. If the project proceeds to actual bidding, other applicants can challenge this as unlawful procurement, potentially rendering the TH-AI Passport project void."
She stressed that the moral agreement requirement is not mere paperwork but a transparency mechanism designed to allow external observers and independent monitors to oversee billion-baht projects from the TOR drafting stage through bidding and delivery. "The committee must provide clear answers to society about why it wrote the rules but ignored them," she concluded.
