Superboard to recommend NBTC keep full power

In addition, the committee set up in 2013 to inspect the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission should be given more power to scrutinise the NBTC’s performance, said General Boonyavat Kruahongs, chairman of the inspection and evaluation committee known as the “superboard”.
The Cabinet recently approved a host of draft “digital economy” bills, including the NBTC Bill, which revises the watchdog’s powers.
Under the bill, the planned National Digital Economy Committee, to be chaired by the prime minister, will determine which frequencies are for security, public or commercial use.
Only those for commercial use will be managed by the NBTC, whereas current laws allow the agency to allocate all frequencies.
Boonyavat said power in spectrum allocation should not be transferred to the government, but should be kept at the independent body.
Pana Thongmee-akom, chairman of the state subcommittee for reforming the broadcasting and telecom industries, recently said the regulator should be able to retain its independence and authority to allocate frequencies.
The Pana panel is part of the mass-communications committee of the junta-appointed National Reform Council.
Boonyavat added, however, that the NBTC’s budget should be approved by the government or Parliament as part of the move to tighten the body’s spending. Currently, the watchdog can set its own budget.
Another member of the inspection committee, Prasert Apipunya, said the panel – established in April 2013 – had found it difficult to inspect and evaluate the NBTC’s performance as the watchdog’s office had not supported its request for documentation, or a budget to perform its work.
The current frequency allocation law obliges the NBTC |office to provide financial support for the committee’s work. The office provided Bt39 million to the committee in 2013 and Bt55 million in 2014, while Bt67 million has been approved for this year.
However, the committee requires NBTC approval every time it spends the budget on any project or task.
Prasert said there were currently three NBTC projects worth Bt413 million combined that should be investigated, because of alleged irregularities in the procurement process.
The committee will ask the Monitoring and Auditing Committee on Fiscal Expenditures to inspect the projects.
The projects in question are the procurement of |equipment to conduct quality-of-service checks on |mobile-phone service, worth Bt400 million; the Bt11-million |procurement of a mobile laboratory; and the procurement of equipment worth Bt3 million for the NBTC-run 1 Por Nor radio station.
The inspection committee yesterday also voiced concern that the NBTC secretary-general’s office had issued several key orders without the NBTC board’s approval, including the order to all mobile-phone operators to charge customers on a per-second basis.