Democrat MP Karndee Leopairote has called on the public to oppose the government’s 1.621-billion-baht TH-AI Passport project, demanding greater transparency and value for taxpayers.
Ms Karndee, also the Democrat Party’s deputy leader, promoted a public petition on Facebook on Wednesday, describing “corruption carried out within the rules” as unacceptable and encouraging people to support efforts to scrutinise the scheme.
The campaign, organised by a group of technology professionals who describe themselves as politically independent and not funded by any company or organisation, seeks to halt the project and calls for a review by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.
It contends that compliance with procurement regulations alone does not guarantee that public spending is justified or delivers measurable benefits.
The campaign website says the concern is not whether procedures were formally followed but whether the project has clear performance indicators, transparent evaluation criteria and demonstrable public value.
Organisers also question whether taxpayers should fund a project costing more than 1.6 billion baht if its benefits cannot be independently assessed.
Ms Karndee shared the campaign’s appeal, which claims she has remained the only MP persistently examining the project. The petition calls for every baht of public spending to be open to scrutiny and carries slogans including “Transparent oversight” and “Stop wasteful spending”.
The TH-AI Passport project aims to provide five million people with a year’s access to professional or premium artificial intelligence tools. The system has not yet opened for public registration and remains in the user acceptance testing (UAT) stage, with final testing scheduled for Friday.
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society is awaiting legal advice from the Office of the Attorney General on proposed amendments to the contract, including payment based on the number of active users, before deciding when the scheme can be launched.