The cabinet meeting on Tuesday 7, September 2010 has come to the following decision:
The cabinet approved in principle the draft of the regulation of the Prime Minister’s Office on the special uniform for the civil servants working at the Anti-Money Laundering Office (No...) Year..., as proposed by the Ministry of Justice. The draft and the observation made by the selecting committee for special agency’s uniform have been forwarded to the Office of the Council of State for scrutiny and will proceed to the next stage. The observation of the selecting committee notes that the star symbol used by certain government agencies to indicate ranks should be left unchanged while other government agencies that would like to use the star symbol as well should opt for other symbol as it is inappropriate to use star symbol to indicate civil servant ranks. The Office of the Secretary to the Cabinet would issue a memo to inform government agencies of the observation, which should be considered as a protocol.
The cabinet approved in principle the request for budget disbursement for the Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand as an additional budget to compensate the operation of the Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand, whose cost exceeded the Fiscal Year 2009-2010 budget allocation, in accordance with the necessity noted in the proposal from the Ministry of Public Health. However, since there was no detail attached with the request for verification, the cabinet has requested to the Emergency Medical Institution of Thailand to submit detailed documentation of expenses in accordance with the criteria and to once again make an agreement with the Budget Bureau, according to the opinion of the Budget Bureau. Agenda: Extension for Halt to Request for the Establishment of New Agency or the Expansion of Agency by the Cabinet Resolution on January 26, 2010
The cabinet approved the extension for the measure to halt the request for the establishment of new agency or the expansion of agency. The request for the establishment of a new public organisation or other government agency that is an affiliate of the executive branch (excluding state enterprise) is also subject to the resolution. The extension will begin on October 1, 2010, and expire on 30 September, 2010, as proposed by the Office of the Civil Service Commission. However, there are following exceptions.
1. The establishment of the new agency is constitutionally obligated or decreed by a parliamentary act.
2. The establishment of the new agency is required to supervise one of the government’s urgent policies, ordered by the cabinet.
3. Elevation of a unit in a department where productivity has increased without consequently increasing the operating cost is allowed.
4. Dissolution, merger, and transfer within the department in the same administrative zone/province, in the same ministry or between ministry, or between provinces or province groupings, without incurring additional cost are permitted.
5. Transfer of duty under the 1999 Planning and Procedure of Decentralisation to Local Administration Act causing the establishment of a new agency is permissible.
6. Transformation of a government agency or the agency’s section to public organisation.
7. Conversion of an existing agency into full-service unit.
Also, the request for the establishment of a new agency, the expansion of the agency, or the alterations made according to at least one of the seven aforementioned conditions will need to proceed according to the direction set by the cabinet.
The cabinet acknowledged, as requested by Mr Khajadbhai Buruthpat, an advisor to the Civil Service Association of Thailand, to strictly ensure justice and ethical codes in government agencies’ reshuffle of positions under ministers.
The Civil Service Association of Thailand has always considered ensuring ethical codes in the government sector as an important policy. This is because the civil service is an important mechanism of the state in implementing policies, bringing progress to the society, and maintaining peace and order to the society. Thus, it is equally important to keep the morale of the civil service high. From the survey at various government agencies by the association and complaints from civil servants, there are still unfair practices in civil service reshuffle, which is influenced by the political clique.
With meritocracy in place, official reshuffle at all levels would be based on the candidates’ knowledge, ability, fairness, equality, achievements, and seniority, but, in practice, the system is not meritocracy, and politicians always claimed that appropriateness is the primary reason for reshuffle, which is not acceptable.
Without meritocracy based system, the system is more inclined to be a patronage system, in which personal connection and interest, considered to be a form of corruption through policy, reign in. This practice discourages the honest civil servants, tainting the reputation of the government. The association asked the Prime Minister, as the government leader and the chair of the Civil Service Commission, to strictly ensure justice and ethics in government official reshuffle within the capacity of the Prime Minister.
The cabinet acknowledged the progress of the Ministry of Transports’ operation following the result of the Prime Minister’s official visit to the People’s Republic of China, between Jun 24 and 27, 2009. The government’s direction and policy on request for line of credit from China was also approved by the cabinet, and the Ministry of Transports has been assigned to proceed with relevant issues, as proposed by the Ministry of Transports.
Synopsis
The Ministry of Transports reported that:
1. The Ministry of Transports has appointed a working committee to work on the Thai-Chinese cooperation in railways, the committee of which is to propose direction for the cooperation, to follow up the progress of the railways issue between Thailand and China, and to forward the result of the bilateral discussion with China to the committee on the resolution to the management of the State Railways of Thailand’s (SRT) basic infrastructure. The committee’s third meeting of year 2009, on November 3, 2009, considered the 151 train engines that have been in operation for more than 25 years and 50 Diesel-powered engines procurement to replace GE train engines that have been in operation for approximately 45 years. Both projects are to improve the efficiency in operation, so they should be considered for first priority for funding from Chinese Export and Import Bank. The improvements for the main northern rail lines from Pitsanulok to Chiang Mai, and for the southern line from Chuan Toong Song to Hat Yai were also granted funding from the 400-million-dollar loan from China. The three projects are estimated to cost around 13.671 billion Baht.
The Ministry of Transports also presented the report on railway development plan to the Prime Minister in order to obtain funding from the Chinese credit line. The following is the proposals for railway development.
(1) 50 diesel-powered engines procurement to replace GE engines that have been in operation for more than 45 years. The project is valued at 6,562.25 million Baht, or 195 million US dollars.
(2) Improvements for main rail line (track, crushed stone ballast bed, spanner, bridge, and concrete sleepers) from Pitsanulok to Chiang Mai. The project is estimated to cost 4.428 billion Baht, or 132 million US dollars.
(3) Improvements for main rail line (track, crushed stone ballast bed, spanner, bridge, and concrete sleepers) from Chuang Toong Song to Hat Yai. The project is estimated to cost 2,680.8 million Baht, or 80 million US dollars.
2. The First Meeting of the Working Committee on Thai-Chinese Railway Cooperation The Ministry of Transports has assigned the working committee on the Thai-Chinese Railway Cooperation to attend the first meeting of the committee on November 30, 2009, in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China, with Deputy Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Transports as the head of the Thai delegates and Director General of the Department of International Cooperation, the Ministry of Railways, as the head of the Chinese delegation. The following is the result of the meeting.
2.1. The Chinese government has giving a priority to the construction of railways and has got a policy to build a rail network nationwide. The Ministry of Railways as has developed a high-speed railway network to serve more than 1.4 billion people and 340 million tons of cargo annually.
2.2. The Thai delegation reported the result of the cabinet meeting on November 17, 2009, and requested for technical support on the railway development from the specialists at the Chinese Ministry of Railways. The request has been accepted by the Chinese delegation.
2.3. The Chinese delegation inquired the issues the Prime Minister requested for the Chinese line of credit of 400 million dollars, which is to be used for railways development in Thailand. The Chinese delegation also proposed a government-to-government project in order to successfully pilot the cooperation between the two countries. The Thai delegation informed the Chinese counterpart that the issue has been sent to the Prime Minister.
2.4. Both parties agree that there should be further meeting on the high-ranking executive government officials in the future.
--Cabinet Meeting (Abhisit Vejjajiva) September 7, 2010--