Top politicians discuss measures to achieve bureaucratic reforms

Pradit Ruangdit and Kosol Satithamajit

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday disagreed with former leaders on bureaucratic reform measures, but everyone agreed such reforms had to be done quickly.

Former prime ministers Anand Panyarachun, Banharn Silpa-archa and Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh joined Mr Thaksin at a workshop yesterday on bureaucratic reforms.

Ministers, permanent secretaries-general, senior civil servants, opposition politicians and academics also joined the two-day workshop, hosted by the Civil Service Commission.

Among those in attendance were Chai-anan Samutthawanich, former lecturer at Political Science Faculty of Chulalongkorn University; Chart Pattana leader Korn Dabbaransi and his secretary-general Suwat Liptapallop; Democrat-list MP and former top executive of University Affairs Ministry, Vijit Srisa-an; Kosit Panpiemrat, chief executive of the Bangkok Bank, Bawonsak Uwanno, secretary-general of Phrapokklao Institute. Mr Anand said bureaucratic reforms should start from a clear and proper division of labour among governmental agencies. "Don't be too serious about how many ministries and departments the government should have, otherwise we will stick only to an increase or decrease of ministries."Decentralisation must also be taken into consideration, he said.

The government should adopt a private-sector style administration and pay more money to officials, who would then be expected to raise the efficiency of their work, Mr Anand said.

Mr Banharn said reforms should focus on the authoritative power of the prime minister, administrative power of civil servants, reduced complexities and less overlapping of boundaries of job descriptions.

" The prime minister must have more power to decide and command. Civil servants must have full authority in carrying out assigned jobs within their own responsibility," Mr Banharn said.

Gen Chavalit said ruling parties should have more power in the Budget Bureau, the Civil Service Commission and the National Board of Economic and Social Development.

"Top officials of these three organisations have long played larger roles than ruling and dominating the government by their own policies. I think politicians should have more control over these three agencies, to fulfill policies."Mr Thaksin said political support, leadership and know-how was needed. "At present, political support and leadership have already been met. So the purpose of today's meeting is to arrive at how to make a bureaucratic reform," he said.

"Reforming bureaucracy is a must if Thailand wants to successfully cope with a rapidly changing world.""Today, I hope you all will bravely come up with new ideas that would lead to a more efficient administration, regardless of how your organisation would be after the reforms," Mr Thaksin said. All proposals would be wrapped up and put into action by October, 2002. The first section of the meeting was conducted during the morning. In the evening, participants were divided into four sub-groups which discussed ways to reform ministries related to national security, social development, economy and administration.