Thursday, September 9, 2010

New steps towards decentralization

In the agenda for the latest cabinet meeting on September 7, item 37 sounded interesting. Submitted by the Ministry of Interior, it is titled "ร่างกฎหมายที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการกระจายอำนาจให้แก่องค์กรปกครองส่วนท้องถิ่น รวม ๔ ฉบับ" (Bill about decentralization and local government, issue 4). However the transcript of the cabinet meeting does not contain it, not sure if it was moved to a later meeting, or is simply missing from the transcript.

So far I don't know what are the actual items to be changed with this amendment of the local government laws, as these should be quoted in the cabinet meeting transcript, and the only recent thing in English is a rather general statement, in which the prime minister claims the government's commitment to decentralization: Decentralization of Administrative Power: An Important Factor for Thailand Reform.

What I found however are the decisions on the same bill in June last year, then it was issue 3. These then became part of the amendment 13 of the municipality act, amendment 6 of the TAO act and amendment 12 of the local administration act, all published in the Royal Gazette end of last year. I'll of course keep you updated as soon as I find out details on what is in the discussion this time, hopefully that will be before the amendments are published in the Gazette.

1 comment:

john francis lee said...

Newin runs Interior, doesn't he? If Newin is pushing "decentralization" you can bet it's a very particular kind indeed.