Superboard ready to monitor work of NBTC
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The so-called superboard whose role is to evaluate the performance of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has completed its working regulations and time frames, said member Prasert Apipunya.
He said the five-member superboard was ready to work in at full steam after its advent in April.
He said that according to the 2010 Frequency Allocation Law, the NBTC office should arrange any assistance the superboard requested.
The Senate voted to select the superboard members on April 9 and the body convened on April 25 to select a chairman. However, so far the NBTC has yet to approve the members’ monthly salaries.
According to NBTC office, the salary of the superboard’s chairman should be Bt120,000 per month, while that of each of other four members is Bt100,000.
The chairman is General Tawatchai Samusakorn, and the other members are General Bunyavat Kruahongs, a former director-general of the Defence Budget Office at the Defence Ministry; former senator Pichai Uttamapinant; Amorntep Jirattiticharoen, who was a lecturer at Mahanakorn University of Technology; and Prasert, who was acting deputy secretary-general of the NBTC.
In April, Amorntep said that among issues he would use to evaluate the NBTC’s performance were its efforts to protect subscribers of TrueMove and Digital Phone Co after their concessions end on September 15, and how the watchdog will auction the 1,800-megahertz spectrum bands of both cellular operators.
Pichai said he had paid attention to the hot issue of the NBTC’s formulation of the beauty-contest rules to grant licences for digital public TV channels.
The power of the superboard’s evaluation committee lies in Article 22 of the Frequency Allocation Law. While it has no authority to dissolve the 11-member NBTC directly, its evaluation of the commission will be used by the Senate if the latter considers removing it. Article 22 states that a vote by at least two-thirds of senators is needed to dissolve the NBTC. In considering such a dissolution, the Senate is obliged to consider the evaluation reports of this committee.
