Govt defends sweeping changes in ThaiHealth
AMID ALL the uproar and doubts over the sudden big change to Thai Health Promotion Foundation’s board, top government figures have come forward to say that there were good reasons for doing so.
On Tuesday, Prayut Chan-o-cha, chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), issued an order removing as many as seven of the 21-member board.
Prayut, who is also prime minister, said yesterday that the move was made to facilitate the ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities and clarify projects that affect the public.
ThaiHealth can still continue its work and this is not an effort to destroy ThaiHealth, he said.
ThaiHealth was accused of misusing its funds because many of the projects that it supported were not relevant to the foundation’s principles.
Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said the removal of seven ThaiHealth board members was not because of the alcohol and cigarette business but due to the misuse of funds for unrelated projects.
“If anyone who was released from duty has a question, they can come see me and the evidence of fund misuse,” he said.
“ThaiHealth is a very good organisation but it has to fix the negligent slipshod working procedures that open up room for corruption.”
The questionable funding by ThaiHealth might have also stemmed from a broad reading of “well-being”, he said.
Reportedly another main reason for the sacking of seven board members was the different legal interpretation between ThaiHealth and the government about conflict of interest within the foundation.
As many ThaiHealth board members also hold leading posts in many organisations that were funded by ThaiHealth, an NCPO source said the junta saw that ThaiHealth’s interpretation of Article 18 of the ThaiHealth Act was very risky.
And as ThaiHealth is funded by government money, any procedures that may violate the transparency principle cannot be tolerated.
Dr Wichai Chokwiwat, one of the sacked board members, had argued that Article 18 exempts the members that sit on the boards of non-profit organisations, so the members of the board are allowed to work in non-profit organisations. He also claimed that this was an international standard.
However, this was the issue that Paiboon reportedly wanted ThaiHealth to amend, but it turned out that the foundation only amended 26 rules to deal with conflict of interest.