"Madame Dear" presses two state cyber agencies for explanations after cybersecurity budgets declined while personnel costs nearly doubled, pointing out that DGA and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society purchased overlapping cloud services totaling over 5 billion baht.
At 10:00 a.m. on 7 July 2026 at the Parliament, during the special committee meeting reviewing the 2027 fiscal year budget bill, Ms. Watanya Bunnag, a committee member, questioned the National Cybersecurity Committee (NCSC) and the Digital Government Development Agency (DGA) about transparency, cost-effectiveness, and budget overlaps in government technology and digital security allocations. She said that budget details for NCSC showed an overall cut from 541 million baht last year to 440 million baht this year, a 20% reduction, understandable as part of the Prime Minister's Office budget cuts. However, deeper analysis revealed anomalies: cybersecurity operational budgets jointly conducted with other agencies were cut by over 30% from 149.7 million to 98.19 million baht, while personnel budgets rose from 99 million to 129 million baht, a 30% increase in 2027. Compared to 2025's 69 million baht, personnel costs nearly doubled, rising over 87% in two years.
Points out overlapping budget allocations for cloud purchases.
She asked why personnel numbers and budgets are increasing sharply despite reductions in overall missions and plans, questioning if national cybersecurity goals have been achieved. She inquired whether the budget cuts would affect set targets and requested clarification on KPIs used to assess the capability upgrades of 300 national agencies—whether these agencies truly meet standards or if it’s merely counting numbers. Regarding DGA’s budget, she found redundancy in government cloud system purchases: DGA allocated 106.7 million baht in the digital government integration plan, including 83.7 million baht for cloud procurement, 3 million for maintenance (M&A), and 20 million for VPN connectivity.
However, an overall review showed that the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (Ministry of DE) also planned cloud system purchases totaling 4.98 billion baht within the same digital government integration plan. She urged DGA to clarify the roles and responsibilities between itself and the Ministry of DE—specifically which agency will act as the central provider and data link for government services, how their functions differ or overlap, and how they will manage to avoid budget duplication and contradictions in the future. Ms. Watanya said.