The navy on Wednesday defended a training drone procurement worth almost 50 million baht after critics raised questions about the project's transparency.
Navy spokesman Adm Pokkhrong Monthatpalin said the project was above board as he explained the reasoning behind the Naval Ordnance Department's 49.8-million-baht procurement of Phoenix Jet Unmanned Aerial Targets from Air Affairs Australia.
Critics questioned why the 2020 deal had not gone ahead already and suggested the purchase had been pushed back to keep the price below the 50-million-baht threshold for higher-level authorisation.
Adm Pokkhrong said the navy had a limited budget, so the department opted to modify the existing units under the terms of the contract for replacements to be provided later.
He said the drone procurement was carried out in line with Defence Ministry regulations, so its authorisation was made by the navy chief, not the department chief.
Adm Pokkhrong insisted the department's committee had vetted the firm that won the contract and found it was an appropriate choice.
The contract, which was signed on March 10, 2020, was revised twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first revision was made on Nov 26, 2020, to enable online training and the second on Dec 30, 2020, to reschedule delivery.
According to Adm Pokkhrong, another change was done to allow the final payment of 2.485 million baht to be made without a "setting to work" phase.
He said the department had asked the naval attaché in Canberra to proceed with a factory acceptance test due to the virus pandemic, and online training was carried out during April 19-30 this year.
He also said Air Affairs Australia was acquired by Qinetic of the United Kingdom late last year, so the "setting to work" phase, which was previously inked in as the final step in the project, is no longer possible.
