"My job [at an undisclosed state enterprise] is nothing serious," a taxi driver once told his fare, a Business Post reporter. "I punch in for work in the morning, then leave to drive my cab all day making extra money, and at four I rush back to the office to clock out.
"Everybody does it so no one tells on each other. The office may want us [to be at work] only when there is an emergency, like when something breaks down and needs an urgent repair," he explained when asked if the boss knew of this rather lucrative sideline.
This man's relaxed attitude to work exemplifies the cushy life of state enterprise workers for decades under the protection of their labour unions.
But such activity is set to end after the bill on state enterprise reforms sailed through the cabinet earlier this month before going to the National Legislative Assembly later this year. When approved, it will become Thailand first-ever law regulating the state enterprises.
The bill has been carefully drafted by the State Enterprises Policy Commission, or superboard, formed by the National Council for Peace and Order to overhaul the structure of state enterprises. The superboard comprises veterans in various fields invited by the NCPO.
The new law will put 12 corporatised state enterprises under the ownership and supervision of a a holding company soon to be set up while allowing the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo) to continue supervising the other 45 state enterprises.
Chanvit Nakburee, director of State Enterprise Policy and Planning Bureau and spokesman of Sepo said the law is a crucial element to tackle key problems in the entire system of Thailand's state enterprise.
"The bill is the first time ever that a [state enterprise] reform has been undertaken," said Mr Chanvit.
The bill was initiated by the superboard, which is chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, and aims primarily to prevent political interference, a key issue that needs to be tackled in order to ensure management transparency and enhance efficiency in state enterprises.
According to the superboard's internal research, the combined investment assets of all state enterprises have tripled to 75% of Thailand's GDP from a decade ago but the revenue generated from the assets have risen to only 44% of GDP from 26%.
Superboard member Banyong Pongpanich cited TOT Plc as an example. He said the state enterprise has a total of 22,000 employees but has been operating at a loss of tens of billions of baht for several consecutive years while revenue at its business rival Advance Info Services (AIS), which has 10,000 employees, is more than five times that of TOT.
Mr Chanvit said the single law would help the state enterprises to manage and supervise their different missions and management structures under a common blueprint.
The bill has given the key management power to superboard, allowing it to be a master plan drafter and thus able to see the whole picture to create a policy to address state enterprises' problems without resorting to redundancy.
"The plan will set the direction for each state enterprise to go towards and that will give them a key performance index," said Mr Chanvit. "It has set a five-year performance target for each enterprise and goes into detail how much investment budget they require and what they can do to achieve their target."
If necessary, there are tools for them to adjust their plans, he added.
Each enterprise will have a crucial preliminary audit programme before implementing their operational plans. This can help limit the risk of mission failure and damages. Currently, the state enterprises require only post-programme audit.
One of most crucial points to prevent political interference is the selection process of the board of directors in each state enterprise as well as the senior management.
"This point is really critical. We have to impose this bill as it will be an efficient tool to block politicians from having influence over the state enterprises, which is the key reason for the corruption and poor performance of these enterprises. The bill will allow all stakeholders as well as the public to participate in the selection process," said Mr Chanvit.
This is to secure good corporate governance of the state enterprise in the long run, he said.
Ekniti Nitithanprapas, director-general of the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo), added that once imposed, the bill will prevent politicians from exploiting state enterprises for pork-barrel projects as in the past, and raise efficiency to boost revenue and scale down burdensome budgets.
The bill is in line with the government's plan to overhaul state enterprises, most of which have long been influenced by politicians who have appointed aides and other proxies to boards or top executive positions to fulfil populist campaign pledges.
Sepo has set aside 1 billion baht for management costs in the national holding firm's first year of operations.
Among the 12 corporatised state enterprises, wholly owned by the Finance Ministry, to be transferred to the holding company are PTT, Krungthai Bank, TOT, CAT Telecom, MCOT, Thai Airways International, Airports of Thailand and the State Railway of Thailand (SRT).
TOT labour union had repeatedly accused the superboard that its reform plan had sought to privatise the state telecom, which would lead to staff being laid off, despite government assurances the reform plan had nothing to do with a privatisation. However, the union has just agreed, eventually and with conditions attached, to the government's idea to merge some parts of TOT with CAT Telecom.
The reform plan may still have some way to go but many are hopeful that it will not too long before the country sees transparency in its state enterprises' operations.