[Thailand] Civil servants to be offered early exit plan

BUREAUCRACY / SECOND PHASE

Civil servants to be offered early exit plan

Other reforms on hold for a year

Bangkok Post, 3 October 2005
PREEYANAT PHANAYANGGOOR

An early retirement scheme for state officials will be launched in the 2006 fiscal year, with the aim of further slimming down the bureaucracy, but other second-phase reforms will be delayed for a year, Deputy Prime Minister Visanu Krue-ngam said yesterday. It was planned to further reduce the number of state officials by up to 50,000, Mr Visanu said.

He said details of the remunerative package were still being finalised, but it would be similar to the last scheme, when civil servants opting for retirement received 8-15 times their final monthly salary. Other incentives were still being worked out. He guaranteed that additional incentives would not be in the form of a royal decoration, a higher grade or 200 times final income as speculated.

Between 2000 and 2002, about 70,000 civil servants opted for an early retirement programme, with severance payments totalling 9.6 billion baht. "The early retirement scheme could begin as soon as the final package has been worked out, ith no need to wait for the second phase of the bureaucratic reform which will now not be implemented this year,'' Mr Visanu said.

There was no reason to rush the revised version of the draft second-phase reform bill to parliament. There were still some matters undecided, including whether to split the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning into two departments and, if so, which ministries they should be placed under.

The Department of Fine Arts under the Culture Ministry could also share its responsibilities for museum and library management with other agencies so that it could concentrate on promoting and preserving arts and traditional arts. Other matters for consideration included upgrading the various agencies overseeing the problem of ethnic minorities and refugees into a new department under the Interior Ministry, and the appropriateness of leaving the Department of Meteorology under the Information and Communication Technology Ministry, or putting it under the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry - an issue which arose in the wake of the December tsunami.

Mr Visanu said the establishment of some new agencies might go ahead when arrangements were ready without waiting for the completed draft bill, such as the rice department to oversee all issues related to rice. Atchaporn Jarujinda, deputy secretary-general of the Council of State, said state reform would see the creation of a new position of "cluster permanent secretary'' for greater flexibility of management within ministries.

The new position would be senior to director-general and with the power to manage budgets and set cluster policies. Each ministry may have more than one cluster permanent secretary. Other changes would include transforming the PM's Office into a "management command centre'' for the prime minister, reporting directly to the prime minister and deputy prime ministers.

The juristic status of departments would also be removed to allow flexibility in transferring of duties, human resources and budgets within ministries.