Auditor-General wants power to review govt policies

Chaiyasit Trachutham, chairman of the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG)’s executive committee, yesterday met with the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) to discuss issues that impede the OAG from doing its job and formulate ways in which the charter can be changed to overcome those difficulties.

Chaiyasit put forward five suggestions to enhance the OAG, the State Audit Commission (SAC) and the Auditor-General (AG), as well as to ensure their independence and neutrality. 

The five suggestions are as follows: 

 Provisions be added to maintain the independence and neutrality of OAG, SAC and AG;

 Provisions be added governing disciplinary rulings and fines related to budget and finance disciplines such as those in the 2007 Constitution with the Budget and Finance Discipline Commission authorised to investigate and suggest fines to SAC, which would hand down the final judgement. But the judgement could still be appealed by the Administrative Court;

 Provisions be added authorising OAG to scrutinise populist and government policies that cause damage to public finance, economy, society, politics, administration, religions, traditions and national security, as well as fiscal mismanagement that result in debt obligations. When approved by SAC, OAG should then be able to propose that the Senate stop those policies, impeach the politicians and force them to make reparations;

 Provisions be added to authorise OAG to assess the efficiency and worthiness of national budget spending. When approved by SAC, OAG could propose to the government and the Senate to consider proceeding;

 Provisions be added to allow OAG to take action if it finds national budget spending to be inefficient, unworthy or causing damage to the state. That actions would take the form of OAG proposing to the Budget and Finance Discipline Commission to consider investigating and suggesting preliminarily fines to SAC, which could give the final judgement. But the judgement could still be appealed by the Administrative Court. The CDC accepted the OAG’s proposals and agreed to consider them while writing the charter.

Until Thursday, more independent agencies, such as the Election Commission, would meet with the CDC to discuss similar issues.

In a related development, CDC spokesman Amorn Wanichwiwatana said the CDC members agreed that “a fresh charter be written short, concise, and inclusive and it should serve to protect to protect the rights and freedoms of the people in line with the universal norms.” He said the CDC would use simple language that would be easily read and understood so that interpretations could be correct and clear.

The spokesman also revealed that the CDC has already started looking at the content article by article. So far, they have gone through at least six articles.

Meanwhile, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday that he had no intention of overruling anybody and that the proposed National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Committee (NSRRC) was neither going to dictate the work of the future government nor penalise it. The NSRRC will simply ensure security when he wants to see the country move forward, Prayut said.

On the subject of reconciliation, which will also be the responsibility of the NSRRC, he said [involved bodies] would need to look into cases and determine how to separate the leaders from the common protesters. If the process is not done properly, the same problem will be repeated when it comes time to push an amnesty bill, he said.