Charter court agrees to rule on legality of decrees
The Constitution Court on Monday accepted for consideration petitions filed by parliamentarians seeking a ruling on the constitutionality of two post-flood financial executive decrees.
One of the petitions was filed by 128 MPs of the Democrat Party on Jan 30 asking the court to rule on the legality of two executive decrees issued by the government - one for the Finance Ministry to seek 350 billion baht in loans, and the other to transfer 1.14 trillion baht in debt from the 1997 financial crisis from the Finance Ministry to the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF).
The other petition was filed by 69 senators on Jan 31 seeking the court's ruling on the constitutionality of the executive decree to transfer the 1.14 trillion baht debt to the FIDF, which is under the central bank.
Court spokesman Pimol Thampithakpong said the Constitution Court judges agreed at a meeting today to accept the petitions for consideration. It would be about 30 days before a ruling could be made.
Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said the government should not accuse the opposition of obstructing its flood prevention operations just because his party filed a petition against the two financial executive decrees.
"The government should stop blaming others and should instead concentrate on solving flood problems," Mr Abhisit said.
Some of the government's most immediate tasks were to set up a model to determine the flow of floodwater and accurately analyse the amount of water in the two months before the next potential flooding begins, he said.
"I agree with the idea that water management should be separated from the bureaucratic system because there have been many problems in the past and there was political interference, preventing management from achieving its target," the opposition leader said.
The former prime minister said he was concerned that the government was still unclear about how it would tackle flooding in different areas.
The government should work with local communities as they had a better knowledge of their areas. However, these communities should not create a flood prevention plan on their own since it would affect other areas as well, he said.
Former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij (left) and ex-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva (Photo REUTERS)
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- Writer: Online Reporters
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