A bill that will allow parliamentary committees to punish state officials who fail to attend parliamentary inquiries has sailed through its second and third readings in the House of Representatives.
The most controversial section, which grants these committees the power to also force legal private entities to respond to their summonses, however, was voted down and axed in the second reading before the rest of the sections were passed in the third and final reading.
This particular section was seen by various Pheu Thai Party MPs as a loophole which could be easily exploited by an unethical committee member to demand a bribe from affected parties.
"Many state officials have been extorted for money [by a parliamentary committee]… It's something of the past now for such an unethical committee to make money out of their authority," said Cholnan Srikaew, a Pheu Thai Party MP for Nan.
Even though some other sections in this bill were strongly opposed in the beginning by MPs who believed these sections were unconstitutional, they all eventually passed in the end.
Dr Cholnan and a number of other Pheu Thai MPs said they couldn't agree with these sections as they appeared to be in breach of the constitution and may later prompt a petition for the Constitutional Court to interpret them.
Section 13, for instance, requires that the prime minister and cabinet ministers take responsibility for failing to ensure state officials under their supervision supply documents or give statements on an issue to a committee.
In case state officials do not respond to committee instructions, the PM or other cabinet ministers concerned are thus required to show up in person during a committee inquiry.
Pheu Thai MPs had doubted whether it would be practical in reality as there wasn't any penalty stated in the bill regarding the PM or other cabinet ministers failing to show up in person.
Rangsiman Rome, a list MP from the main opposition People's Party, in his capacity as a member of the House committee vetting the bill, said the PM and cabinet ministers may face charges, such as dereliction of duty, under other laws for failing to show.
The bill will be forwarded to the Senate for deliberation next.
