The Senate is preparing for a general debate to grill the government on its perceived failure to tackle corruption and other key problems, including sales of contraband pork.
With the current parliamentary session due to end on April 9, late February or March would be the best time for the debate, Senator Seree Suwanpanont said on Monday.
A working group coordinating the planned general debate was preparing a list of topics from questions submitted by senators interested in taking part, he said. The group was formed after a motion requesting a general debate was put to the Senate last Thursday, he said.
Debate topics needed to be set first, as the relevant cabinet ministers needed to be formally invited to respond during the debate, he said.
At this point, about seven broad topics had been outlined. Senators wishing to take part in the debate were still submitting questions, which would be grouped into the main topics, the senator said.
"Many senators have expressed an interest in speaking," he said.
The government’s attempts to stamp out bribery in the public sector and other problems, including pork smuggling, would definitely be among topics the government should explain, he said.
Bribery in the public sector had become far more complicated, with corrupt officials no longer directly demanding people pay them a bribe, he said. These corrupt people now pressured people to pay them voluntarily, using a mechanism under which they abuse their authority in an indirect way to make others pay them a bribe, without issuing a demand, he said.
The public would be told if Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin planned to attend the debate and answer questions in person, Mr Seree said. He warned the prime minister not to assign someone else to answer senators' questions on his behalf.