However, the panel said the trip spending was in line with the House's budget. Previously the Parlia-ment did not limit the number of foreign trips in each fiscal year.The auditor-general's report found that over the last five years, almost Bt1 billion in total had been reimbursed from the two Houses to cover the parliamentary committees' spending on overseas trips. He added that the committees never evaluated the effectiveness of each of the trips. "So why did they need to exploit the taxpayer's money to study other countries' work again?" he asked.He said his team would do its best to push for parliamentary spending reform to ensure that the incoming Houses spend the public's money effectively.

Source: The Nation Bangkok September 24, 2016 17:21 UTC