The Secretariat of the House of Representatives will have to juggle two huge tasks — curbing corruption in the organisation and acting as the administrative arm for both the national reform and the charter drafting councils that will steer the country back to democracy.
The Secretariat of the House of Representatives (SHR) is likely to be assigned as the administration unit for both the national reform council and the charter drafting council, said Jare Phanplueang, acting secretary-general of the SHR.
The Secretariat of the Senate, meanwhile, is likely to become the national legislative council’s administration unit.
Initially, the reform council was expected to comprise 150 members but the council member numbers later rose to 250. This will result in budget allocation changes.
Normally, about 12 billion baht should be set aside for the House Secretariat in the coming fiscal year starting on Oct 1. About 2 billion baht will be reserved for funding its general administration while about 1.8 billion baht more will go to the reform council and the charter drafting council.
The rest of the budget will be reserved for funding other key secretariat projects that will later be created in line with the new constitution.
But probing internal corruption will be the litmus test for the secretariat’s future. The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has advised the House Secretariat to improve its budget spending regulation to ensure spending conforms with the law.
The NCPO also told it to inform the military council before approving any project that may require a budget higher than 1 billion baht.
This followed recent corruption scandals including the buying of 238 wall-mounted clocks at a reported 70,000 baht each.
In its announcement No.69, the NCPO urges honesty, transparency, and fairness in state agencies’ spending.
And since the secretariat has faced criticism over its past spending, the organisation has decided to launch an internal probe into suspicious spending although the NCPO didn’t specifically instruct it to do so, Mr Jare said.
Two committees have been set up to work in parallel.
One committee consists of legal experts who will review regulations of all units of the House Secretariat. That will take two months.
The other committee inspects the secretariat’s past expenditures to find out if any was carried out incorrectly and whether any disciplinary probes and legal suits should be pursued.
The secretariat will work alongside the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) in examining the past records of the House spending. “What we find out from further probes may be even worse than what we now know from the media,” Mr Jare said.
Those suspected of being involved in allegedly corrupt procurement projects would be required to explain why they thought their decisions were justifiable.
A source who is part of this committee said several renovation projects appeared to have been unnecessary since a new parliament complex is being constructed.
The committee aims to examine about 10 procurement projects including the purchase of high-priced wall-mounted clocks, the purchase of hot and cold water dispensers, a marble flooring renovation at the King Rama VII statue, and several more room renovations.
If any of these projects is proved to be corrupt, the head of the organisation approving it would have to be held responsible, the source said.