The remaining ThaiHealth Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) board members will postpone their meeting planned for Friday for one week.
Seven board members of ThaiHealth were earlier suspended under Section 44 of the interim charter, leaving only two independent experts and 11 government officials from various ministries on the board.
One of the suspended members is the deputy board chairman. Legal experts have voiced concerns that the board meeting may be unable to be held in line with the ThaiHealth-related laws despite the fact a quorum remains in place.
ThaiHealth spokesman Prakasit Kayasit said chairman Narong Pipatanasai will forward a list of the foundation committee members to the cabinet meeting on Tuesday so members can select one as the replacement deputy chairman.
The meeting planned for Friday (Jan 15) was to select ThaiHealth's new manager and recruit replacements for the suspended members.
About 1.64 billion baht for 515 projects has been frozen by the Auditing Committee on Fiscal Expenditure (MACFE) in response to government concerns regarding ThaiHealth's alleged misspending.
The civic group, Thai Health Movement (THM), earlier threatened to file a lawsuit against ThaiHealth with the Administrative Court unless the funds are unfrozen.
The postponement of the meeting also resulted in the budget freeze being imposed for another week.
However, Public Health Minister Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn insisted the board will consider the issue at its meeting as the foundation's work must carry on, calling on the THM to "keep calm".
Meanwhile, workers who perform volunteer jobs for ThaiHealth-funded projects Wednesday appeared at the complaint centre near Government House to ask Adm Narong, who is also deputy prime minister, to unfreeze the budget, saying the move hit less-fortunate people who normally stand to benefit from ThaiHealth spending.
Many of the ThaiHealth-funded umbrella organisations can't financially support smaller organisations and workers with their funding cut.
"Some people are no longer able to benefit from health promotion activities," said Charn Reupsom, coordinator of the Bangkok Network of Communities. Since the budget freeze three months ago, he said, more than 10,000 employees and workers can't continue their work.
Those include slum and informal labour networks such as vendors, taxi drivers and construction workers who play a major role in linking big organisations to the grassroots level.
Piyawan Maijan, a vendor working on a mental health improvement project, said she and her team were forced to halt their activities, which encouraged behaviour changes to improve people's well-being.
