FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Public organisations 'face the axe if they can't shape up in six months'

Public organisations 'face the axe if they can't shape up in six months'

PRIME Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha hinted yesterday that public organisations could face the axe if a review proves that they wasted their budgets without really serving their founding objectives.

 
“The review process will take between three to six months,” he said. 
The Cabinet yesterday assigned the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission to study the suitability of each public organisation in consultation with Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam.
Wissanu said the government was also planning to have the Office of the Public Sector Development Committee (OPDC) to evaluate a total of 39 public organisations. 
He said some organisations’ chief executives have excessively large monthly salaries, some of whom make three times as much as the PM’s salary. Also, there has been no proper evaluation of these organisations’ performance. 
The order came amid rumours that the government was planning to abolish seven public organisations, which includes the Office of Knowledge Management and Development (OKMD).
OKMD runs the Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC), TK Park and Museum Siam, and this year, it needs a budget of Bt711.5 million. 
Budget Bureau chief Somsak Chotrattanasiri, who is also an OKMD executive, said yesterday: “The abolishing of public organisations was not on the agenda at today’s Cabinet meeting.”
So far, he said, the Cabinet had discussed the public organisations in question and issued the order for a review, though rumours about OKMD being dissolved created an uproar this week. “Our activities have always attracted keen participation from people, and not that much is spent on them,” SEA Write award-winner Chiranan Pitpreecha lamented on Facebook. She works as a public relations adviser to Museum Siam. -
She also reiterated that projects such as these are inspiring and have helped many children discover the path to their future career. 
Ex deputy education minister Sirikorn Maneerin said she was not against the idea of improving public organisations. 
“But don’t destroy them because of bias. No one should impede people’s intellectual growth,” she said, pointing out that TK Park has nurtured children who could not afford to buy books. 
“TK Park is not just a library inside an upscale shopping mall. It has been seriously promoting reading among Thais for the past decade. It has also opened an online version to give people in remote areas access to reading material,” she said. 
Meanwhile, TCDC announced on Facebook that it would inform the public as soon as it knows about its future. 
 

Public organisations \'face the axe if they can\'t shape up in six months\'

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