BANGKOK, Sept 20 (TNA) – The Ministry of Justice revoked a contract on procurement of electronic monitoring (EM) bracelets and called for 83 million baht in damage from the supplier.
Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin told a press conference about the revocation of the contract, made with the Supreme Distribution Thailand to rent EM bracelets after the devices were found with flaw and non-function.
The Department of Probation earlier had made a 21-month contract from January 2019 to September 2020 to rent 4,000 EM bracelets for tracking movements of paroled offenders with the budget of 74 million baht.
The test on the efficiency of the devices on Aug 9 found flaws, which did not match the Terms of reference (TOR) and the company failed to supply the new ones with 15 days in accordance with the contract.
The probation department informed the supplier to pay 83 million baht in damage after the examination found the EM bracelets can be removed without the department being alerted.
If the company failed to settle the debt within 15 days, the justice ministry will file a lawsuit for the compensation from the contractor.
In the meantime, the department will suspend the use of the EM bracelets until it can procure the new devices by seeking the new budget in the next fiscal year.
About 500 offenders, who used the EM bracelets before the revocation of the contract will be ordered to report themselves or sent to do social works.
The electronic monitoring is one of the department’s measures to reduce overcrowding in prisons. There are currently 360,000 inmates in prisons across the country. (TNA)
