Bureaucrats want end to interference

They spoke at a forum held on Friday on the topic of “Uniting Government Officials’ Ideas towards Drafting the Constitution” by the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) panel on public participation and gathering opinions.

Participants in the forum include 19 ministries and other officials, such as the ministries of Defence, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Social Development and Human Security, Labour, plus Education and Industry.

Officials from the ministries were divided into four groups of mixed members. The topic that caught the most attention was the “authority and jurisdiction of government officials and politicians”.

All four groups agreed that over the years many politicians have interfered with their working jurisdiction and abused state officials. So, they want to see government agencies and ministries that are more independent, with less politicians intervening.

Suthep Benjapakeesakul from the Ministry of Labour, who represented the first group, said they would like to separate politicians from the executive branch so that politicians only have authority to put forward policies and state officials can put them into action.

“By this proposal it could reduce the interference of politicians towards other agencies because they would only propose the policy,” Suthep said.

He also voiced concern over the source of officials, saying it is within the jurisdiction of Office of the Civil Service Commission (OCSC) to arrange tests for people who want to be officials. In some cases the OCSC allowed other agencies to arrange the test, and that may lead to people with power to abuse their authority and bring in candidates who did not pass the test.

 

‘Keep politicians away from courts’

The first group said the selection of government officials should be scrutinised carefully, and they did not want to see politicians interfering in the courts. So they want the CDC to draft articles outlining the jurisdiction and authority of every agency.

The second group said that the appointment of permanent secretaries needed to be approved and proposed by executives. Therefore they proposed the setting up of a panel of government officials and politicians to scrutinise such appointments.

“We would propose this idea to the CDC, to, if possible, set up a new committee for officials to be part of the appointment of high-ranked officials, to promote a more just system,” a representative from the group said.

The first group proposed that a new committee be set up to scrutinise state officials’ integrity and morality, so it could scrutinise the transparency when permanent secretaries were appointed. 

The third group said there should be a separation of power clearly stated between politicians and state agencies.

They also voiced support for the first group on setting up a committee to scrutinise the appointment and relocation of state officials in some cases.

Koompon Buasawan, a Commerce official representing the first group, said the committee should include retired senior officials and others who would not benefit from the scrutiny, as it could be a way to solve problems.

The fourth group voiced support for the idea to clearly stipulate the jurisdiction of officials to prevent political interference in work areas.

Thawilwadee Bureekul, chairperson of the panel, said all proposals would be noted and forwarded to the CDC. Some proposals had already been discussed and if officials had more suggestions they could be passed on also.