A video of a municipal council member exposing alleged corruption by a municipal mayor in the purchase of computers for two schools has gone viral, winning praise from social media users.
Within just a few hours of being posted on YouTube on Saturday morning, the 10-minute video received over 2 million views.
In the video, the unidentified municipal council member is seen addressing a council meeting and revealing details about suspected corruption involved in the purchase of 21 school computers. The local mayor, he says, approved the purchase of substandard computers for the schools, with each unit costing 22,000 baht and a total expenditure of 462,000 baht.
The councillor points out that the purchase price was deliberately kept below 500,000 baht to avoid triggering an e-bidding process, which would have required the mayor to relinquish decision-making authority. The mayor justified this by claiming a lack of expertise in evaluating the bids.
In response, the council member argues that the mayor could have sought assistance from qualified people. As well, he complains that the final purchase order was for computers with only 8 gigabytes of memory instead of the required 32GB. The specifications, he adds, were from 2020 instead of the necessary 2022 standards.
The council member criticises the purchase as disrespectful to the council and urges his colleagues to withhold approval. He also proposes raising the threshold for purchases below 500,000 baht.
Many of those who commented on the video have expressed concern for the council member’s safety while commending his integrity. Social media users applauded his dedication to the students and his sense of duty.
