A Thai Rak Thai repeat is planned by reviewers.
As part of the government’s decentralization strategy, the government has agreed in principle to give all provincial rulers power that is roughly equivalent to that of a companyCEO.
However, some critics and the main opposition party, the Move Forward Party ( MFP), have expressed skepticism about whether the alleged decentralization corresponds with more widely accepted international definitions.
The proposal, which was approved by the cabinet, calls for provincial governors to perform performance evaluations of administrative senior civil servants in their provinces, increase their salaries, provide special rewards, and, when necessary, take punitive action against them under Section 53 of the 2022 imperial decree on incorporated area-based administration.
The proposal, which was presented by the National Economic and Social Development Council ( NESD ) on Monday at the mobile cabinet meeting in Nong Bua Lam Phu, has a start date of October 1, 2024, for the 2025 fiscal year.
According to the source, key performance indicators (KPIs ) would be introduced to assess provincial accomplishments and support government decisions regarding budget planning and development programs.
According to the source, provinces were also given instructions on Monday to outline a 20-year statewide development outlook and provide information on current monthly development plans.
In the meantime, the government gave the Ministry of Interior the task of compiling the information it had received so that the Budget Bureau could distribute the state budget with the provinces ‘ growth plans.
According to the source, all provincial governors will receive a formal briefing on the precise range of their new power and how to carry out their newly established responsibilities in accordance with the order.
The “CEO” concept, which was included in Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s state policy statement, was criticized by MFPlist-MP Parit Wacharasindhu in a debate on September 12 as nothing more than an updated version of Thai Rak Thai Party policy.
According to Mr. Parit, the policy should not be viewed as pro-decentralization because these new-style governors would n’t be chosen by the people of their provinces.
Decentralization’s main benefit, according to him, is that it gives people the power to choose their own leaders to uphold their freedom and guide the growth of their populations.
Additionally, Mr. Parit had charged that the Srettha leadership had broken its earlier promise to run provincial governor votes in a few areas.
He claimed that the ruling group owes its supporters an argument.
If operational energy has already been partially decentralized to the municipal and tambon operational organizations, according to Stithorn Thananithichot, director of the Office of Innovation for Democracy at King Prajadhipok’s Institute, the policy is unlikely to be successful.
Municipal administrators now have much less authority than they did 20 years before, when the Thai Rak Thai Party implemented this exact same scheme, he claimed.
According to him, the only way to be successful would be for the government to replace these rulers with the organizers of the current local administrative bodies.
Job integration among the current local administrative bodies and municipal offices of different ministries in each province is what is lacking and essential for the success of power decentralization, he said.
At the provincial level, integrated administration does n’t really exist, he claimed.