How does the Prime Minister Justify this Egregious Waste of Money?

[fountainhall]

Almost a week ago the Deputy Prime Minister led a 38-member entourage of Thai Minsters, civil servants and assorted others to a recently convened Asean-US defence meeting in Hawaii. The Prime Minister is on record as having pressured government officials some time ago to use economy class tickets when travelling out of Thailand. With TG having no flight to Honolulu, did Prawit Wongsuwon and his party take TG to Manila, Osaka, Nagoya or Tokyo and then other airlines from there? That would certainly have been the least expensive way of getting to Hawaii.

Ah, but what is preached is not always practised. Using the excuse that TG does not fly to Honolulu, the Deputy Prime MInister decided he could not be expected to fly on any other national airline. So what did he do? He charted a plane from TG! Chartered! And not just any ordinary small plane that would require a stop to refuel. This high-minded Minister had much more grandiose ideas. He chartered a TG Boeing 747-400 with a seating capacity of up to 416 passengers - all for a total of 39 people! No doubt this enabled every one in the delegation to be accommodated in first and business class, contrary to the Prime Minister's policy.

The excuse given by a defence spokesman was that it was necessary to charter a plane because it would have been inconvenient and inappropriate to use commercial flights that would require several connecting flights! And when, I wonder, did this spokesman bother to check airline timetables? Only one change is required for flights to Honolulu from BKK.

Total cost for this 3-day junket? A puny Bt. 20.9 million of taxpayers money. Allegedly the cost of just the food on the plane was Bt. 600,000 - around Bt. 15,000 per passenger for a maximum of four meals each. Yet Prawit stated the on-board food was simple! Simple? Not surprisingly he denies the claim of the one reporter who was on the trip that he was seen tucking into caviar. The army spokesman has now said he refuses to answer any more questions and all details will be forwarded to the Auditor General. No doubt to disappear in a mountain of other paperwork!

Not surprisingly, this junket has caused a storm on social media.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/poli...ight-to-hawaii

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