According to Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, an MFP campaign assistant, the Move Forward Party’s pledge to push for the election of provincial governors is not a” panacea for all problems ,” and the real question is whether the Governors are even relevant.
While supporting the MFP’s decentralization plan, Mr. Piyabutr stated on Facebook that he disagreed with its campaign pledge to choose the municipal eyes.
The co-founder of the Progressive Movement claimed that electing the people in the place, who are already appointed by the internal minister, would be like barking up the wrong tree.
He claimed that three main elements make up the nation’s management: main, regional, and local agencies. Ministries, sections, and various state offices in Bangkok and the nearby provinces make up the core agencies.
Local organizations include statewide representatives from their individual ministries, such as the municipal offices for agriculture and public health. The local organizations connected to the Interior Ministry include the provincial governors and city chiefs.
On the other hand, the local agencies are made up of provincial administrative bodies ( PAO ), the municipal office, tambon administrative groups ( TAO) and special administrative zones( SAZ ), specifically Pattaya City and Bangkok, whose leaders are chosen.
An update to SAZs is being considered for more nearby services, the largest of which are the PAOs and the smallest the TAOs.
But, because their managers are not directly elected and do not have the freedom to manage their own interests, Mr. Piyabutr claimed that local governments are ineffective as a functional unit of power decentralization.
Since we have elected PAO chairs at the top of the local power tier, he claimed, the issue does not stem from electing statewide governors.
Instead, the actual problem is that local governments are susceptible to interference from centralized and local agencies because they experience finances and authority deficits.
Work duplication is a common occurrence for the core, regional, and local agencies, according to Mr. Piyabutr.
He claimed that he has made an effort to address the issue by suggesting amendments to sections of the law that control local elections as part of a sign-up plan. Parliament was presented with the proposed act, but it was rejected in November of last year.
With the exception of national-level open system services, protection, and national defense, the expenses would have given local agencies broad administrative powers.
The bill’s central clause required that nearby agencies’ authority may supersede that of the central and local agencies in matters pertaining to the management of local affairs.
Additionally, he added, the local governments may retain a larger portion of the revenue from local taxis.
According to Mr. Piyabutr, local administrations may be streamlined to get over from main agencies in a way that recognizes and respects power decentralization if the role of the provincial governor is to stay.