Specialists urge revamp of state procurement process

Technical experts have urged an overhaul of the bidder qualification criteria for government auctions to prevent registration system collapses for state projects with a massive amount of registrants.

- SUCHIT LEESA-NGUANSUK

The comments follow glitches in the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) registration system for the 1.76-billion-baht co-payment scheme, which subsidises hotel rooms for domestic tourists.

The glitches led to crashes from the first day of registration on Tuesday.

The TAT apologised on Wednesday for the glitches.

A source with experience in developing large-scale registration systems who requested anonymity said it might be difficult to pinpoint the exact flaws in the co-payment system's registration.

The source likened the mess to hiring a home builder to construct a large building, the kind of project that requires specialised expertise.

Designing a registration system for a large project requires a robust queuing mechanism, added the source.

"These kinds of systems must be able to efficiently manage massive volumes of user traffic, particularly during peak registration periods," said the source.

Without a well-engineered queuing structure, users may experience timeouts, system crashes or delayed responses — issues that severely erode public trust.