POLITICS / ELDER STATESMAN'S SPEECH, SURAYUD CRITICISED, CIVIL SERVANTS WARNED, RUBBER PLANT GRAFT CASE

State agencies told to abide by government's guidelines

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has given the green light to ministry permanent secretaries to take appropriate disciplinary action against state agencies or bureaucrats who are still in ''neutral gear'' and unresponsive to government policies. Gen Surayud yesterday held a meeting with the permanent secretaries of all ministries. He instructed them to use the merit system in human resource management and asked them to take appropriate punitive action against agencies or officials who are still in neutral gear.

The prime minister urged all state agencies to give their full cooperation to the Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC). Information supplied by any agencies would be useful for the panel's investigations into alleged graft, he said.

He said the bureaucrats should work honestly and straightforwardly.

Gen Surayud asked all state agencies to speed up the use of their budgets for fiscal 2007 and not to hesitate from carrying out the urgent projects of his government, which now only has eight months left in office.

All agencies were told to abide by the government's guidelines. If the government decided to scrap or put on hold any projects, they must act on the government's decisions, said the prime minister.

He called on the agencies to speed up projects necessary to alleviate the problems of the poor.

Officials were advised to present their views to the government about projects they thought were useful or needed to be reviewed.

He emphasised the importance of applying the philosophy of sufficiency economy of His Majesty the King.

General News
Bangkok Post
Saturday January 27, 2007