The Expensive Lesson from the Procurement Office — Priya's Story

Ms. Priya Srithong, Senior Procurement Officer at the Saranam Sub-district Administrative Organization (SAO) in Saraburi Province, stared at the blank TOR template in front of her with a heavy heart. Last year, she had signed off on a purchase of six backpack sprayer units at a total budget of 180,000 Thai Baht — sourced from the lowest bidder in an e-Bidding process. On paper it looked flawless: the lowest price, complete documents, on-time delivery.

But just four months into the dengue larval control campaign season, the first unit failed to start. The second had a leaking rubber seal causing chemical to drip continuously. The third unit's carburetor seized. And worst of all, spare parts were not available in Thailand. The distributor quoted a 3 to 6 week import lead time. The campaign season came and went. Work was left incomplete. Dengue cases in the sub-district rose 40%. The SAO president faced public complaints. And Priya had to write a formal explanation to the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) justifying why six pieces of equipment had failed within one fiscal year.

This year, she was writing a new TOR — and she was going to make it bulletproof from the first line.