According to the cabinet resolution on November 25, 2014 regarding the proposal by National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) to prioritize critical issues and to select practical points. Afterwards, it will be introduced to NCR for considering and proposing to Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC).
This report was approved by the cabinet on January 6 and January 26, 2015. NRC was also informed of this reform proposal submitted by NESDB.
National Economic and Social Development Board included reform proposals from 27 government agencies; (1) The Prime Minister’s Office (2) The Secretariat of the Cabinet (3) Bureau of the Budget (4) Office of the National Security Council (5) Office of the Council of State of Thailand (6) Office of The Civil Service Commission (7) Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (8) Ministry of Finance (9) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (10) Ministry of Tourism and Sports (11) Ministry of Social Development and Human Security ( (12) Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (13) Ministry of Transport (14) Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (15) Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (16) Ministry of Energy (17) Ministry of Commerce (18) Ministry of Interior (19) Ministry of Justice (20)Ministry of Labour (21) Ministry of Culture (22) Ministry of Science and Technology (23)Ministry of Education (24) Ministry of Industry (25) Ministry of Public Health (26) National Intelligence Agency and (27) Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board.
The followings include some interesting points of the proposal (this report only selected new issues, the full proposal can be read at ‘Monitoring Reform Proposals by Government Agencies’).
The Secretariat of the Cabinet
.jpg)
Improving Regulation on the Request for the Bestowal of Royal Decorations
Because the regulation on the request for the bestowal of royal decorations given to government official and political office holder has been issued for over 20 years ago, they should be improved in response to current circumstance and for more transparency in order to repay the His Majesty’s kindness and to uphold the honour and value of royal decorations. Royal decorations should be defined as a mark of honour to the true benefactors to services of the crown and public. Hence, the receiver of royal decorations would be greatly encouraged and determined to continue their service of the crown and the public.
The Secretariat of the Cabinet submits a proposal 1) to form a working group to review regulation and procedure on the request for the bestowal for Royal Decorations in correspondence with Office of the Prime Minister’s regulation on the request for the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant and the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand 1993 and revised version 2) to make a cancellation of the regulation in 1) and to promulgate a new set of regulation.
Bureau of the Budget
.jpg)
Reviewing Public Organization
There should be a review of public organization’s duty and mission because the majority of public organization’s work overlaps with the government agency to some extent. Also, their remuneration and benefit are better than those of government officials. Public organization attempts to claim that they are professional, however, it is found that their performance does not differ from performance of government agency. Lastly, some public organization fails to meet the intention of establishment.
Bureau of the Budget submits a proposal 1) to review, dissolve or abolish public organization
2) to adopt the procedure of establishment strictly.
Office of the National Security Council (NSC)
.jpg)
Establishing a Ministry/ Bureau of Security
Ministry/ Bureau of Security should be established for the purpose to integrate and to unify security management to solve and prevent forthcoming problems. For the urgent cases, NSC suggests the improvement of security management system by altering a Royal Decree on Good Governance B.E. 2546. NSC would play a key role in developing Administration and Government Plan accordingly to security and economic work. Also, NSC should be allowed to take part in formulating annual budget allocation strategy to connect security policy and strategy with budget allocation strategy leading to effective system, which is now during the proposal process to the government.
Establishing Security Court
NSC proposed to enact ‘Special Counter-terrorism Laws’, especially a special law to support the execution of operation official and to improve administration of justice regarding terrorism and security case as the characteristic of these cases is different from typical criminal case. They usually work as an organization or network. Moreover, it should be considered if ‘Security Court’ is appropriate to handle sensitive cases and to protect witness who might be threatened by terrorists.
Ministry of Finance
.jpg)
Enhancing Efficiency of Tax System
There should be an expansion of new tax base which could refer to inheritance tax, land tax and property tax. Development in land and property appraisal and business tax system should be encouraged while income tax deduction should bring more benefit for people with low income. Moreover, tax exemption or deduction, which solely offers benefit to the rich, should be removed.
Employing Negative Income Tax System (NIT)
NIT should be employed to reduce inequalities and to replace populist policy. NIT is opposed to currently employed Positive Income Tax System. Instead of collecting tax, NIT provides subsidies to claimants whose income falls below standard by transferring money or issuing bank cheque. Standard is used as an instrument to qualify the claimants.
Ministry of Social Development and Human Security
.jpg)
Creating ‘Ministry of City and Housing Development’
It aims to formulate policy, strategy, plan to develop city and housing in the country. Also, the assessment of policy and plan implementation will be carried out. The ultimate purpose is to develop housing condition for underprivileged, the elderly and other groups at risk. Departments which should be subordinated to Ministry of City and Housing Development should include Department of Town and Country Planning (dissociated from Department of Public Work to make plans), Department of Lands (to manage land allocation), National Housing Authority (to develop city and housing), Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (to manage rail transit system in the area related to city and housing development), City and Housing Development Funds Committee (must be established), City and Housing Development Institution (must be established to spread knowledge), etc.
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
.jpg)
Promoting Crop Insurance System in Production Group
Farmer Institute are crop insurance agents. If farmer intends to apply for crop insurance, they would have to develop agricultural products assigned and planned by Farmers' institutes. The products should meet the major demand of the market. Government, product buyer and farmer would work together to define the appropriate insurance premium proportion.
Urging for Contract Farming Act
It is to define a clear legal framework regarding contract farming in aspects of relation between producer and buyer, contract content draft, definition of dispute conciliation, disaster compensation from government, buyer guarantee formulation and compensation fund or breach of contract risk insurance.
Agricultural Zoning
In order to adjust production structure to comply with demand and land suitability, agriculture economic zone should be utilized by considering balance among food crops, energy crops, and industrial crops, cost-effectiveness and benefit return, way of life, culture and local wisdom. Integrated farming, fishery, domestic animal, to let unsuitable land for community industries might be recommended to farmers who own unsuitable or unprofitable land. Compensation and subsidy would be only distributed to registered famers who grow crop in suitable area and the compensation rate varies according to crop types.
Ministry of Information and Communication Technology
.jpg)
Promoting the use of Open Source Software
Courses in school will be designed to teach open source software because there is currently not enough teaching about technology for self-reliance. Government sector will develop policy to implement open source software into the working system according to Sufficiency Economy Philosophy.
Open Skies for Satellite Services
Gradual process will be taking place within the context of space affairs development of Thailand either in the short and long term. Moreover, the government might consider a case study of foriegn countries.
.jpg)
Clearing vehicle aged over 15 years off the roads
The concept is inform the public to remove car aged over 15 years or acquired for over 5 years from the roads to prevent the transfer or rights to buy a new car in the same size. Government may deduct the tax as cost price of manufacturer, however, price difference must exceed old car’s price. Government is like the buyer of these old cars by using car tax. This is merely a loss of opportunity. If the consumer does not buy a new car, the government would not be able to collect tax anyway. It is not an addition to normal sales. Old license plate will still be used while old car become the property of the government. After that, it may be dismantled by technical colleges or some government agency to recycle steel. The government is responsible for imposing preventative measure to reuse old car. This project may start with cars acquired for 15-17 years and then undertake project assessment. If the project is successful, car aged over 10 years will soon be removed from the roads as well. The growing industry will follow with existing customer base.
Ministry of Interior
.jpg)
Rearranging Structure and Numbers of Local Administrative Organization (LAO)
Especially, the structure of provincial administrative organization (PAO) and sub-district administrative organization (SAO) would be reviewed. The steps are as follows (1) to restructure into one-level local administrative organization (2) to upgrade all LAO as municipality to be under the same law and to decrease personnel expense (3) to reduce numbers of LAO by considering two criteria (3.1) Judged by Population. Numbers of LAO will be decreased to 5000 (1 per 5000 people). Numbers of LAO will be decreased to 1300 (1 per 10000 people). (3.2) Judged by Area. If the area of SAO and municipality overlaps within one sub-district; geosocial, geography, cost-effectiveness and efficiency of administration will be taken into consideration. All in all, one sub-district should only have one LAO to decrease overlapping area.
Encouraging Numbers of LAO to generate its own Revenue
There are two means to increase revenue of LAO (1) to increase tax base by pushing Land and Buildings Tax Act to replace local development tax and house & land tax which is of very low rate. (2) to improve budget allocation of LAO as duty increases after the transfer of mission (LAO received 27.37% of government revenue as annual budget in 2014). Hence, government should improve budget allocation for rural LAO earning low revenue to decrease inequalities and increase effectiveness in public service.
Ministry of Justice
.jpg)
Alternative Measures to Imprisonment
Because the figures of inmates is beyond capacity of prison, they have to face overcrowded condition affecting welfare and management. A larger number of inmates than appropriate ratio of prison officers per inmates create inspection problem. Alternative measures to imprisonemnt are (1) to cancel certain crime offences which can also be taken as civil offence (2) to promote measures to suspend prosecution for certain type of criminal case (3) to promote probation measure for convicts by altering regulations and implementing Electronic Monitoring (EM) (4) to promote the rights to provisional release to decrease detainee during judicial inquiry (5) to improve regulation on parole in order to promote rights to parole while using Electronic Monitoring (EM) (6) to promote Correctional Citizen Development School Project for training inmates before the release of special parole case and (7) to integrate the work of main justice agencies ; Royal Thai Police, Office of the Attorney General, Courts of Justice and Ministry of Justice.
Outsourcing ‘Excecuting Officer’
This position will be outsourced to private sectors in order to decentralize authority. Convenient, fast and economical service will be provided to the public. They can take part in execution. Moreover, ‘Excecuting Officer Profession’ should be established. There should be a screen test, training on execution and related law, a final test, an internship as civil executing officer in Legal Execution Department for a period of time as assingned and lastly a registration. Legal Execution Department will be given authority to control, supervise and distribute power to local agency. There should be national, central and local agency concerning execution.
Ministry of Labour
.jpg)
Increasing Labour Inspection Officials
There are approximately 400,000 establishments needed to be inspected due to labour protection law, however, the number of labour inspection officials is only 600. Also, the officials are responsible for various tasks. This leads to deficiency in establishment inspection.
Approving government budget for NGOs to Prevent Human Trafficking
Regulation should be altered to allocate budget for NGOs to work with the government to prevent and to solve human trafficking problem. NGOs and government should work together to design a clear operation strategy and indicators. NGOs will then be as a mouthpiece to publicize the progress to foreign countries after Department of State of US has placed Thailand to a Tier 3, the worst ranking. In the process of making this report, US obtained information from NGOs that are usually outdated and inaccurate.
Go to 'จับตา' for “ข้อเสนอการปฏิรูปประเทศของแต่ละหน่วยงาน”
http://www.tcijthai.com/tcijthainews/view.php?ids=5544
www.facebook.com/tcijthai
Tags
