Cabinet says it's intent on streamlining its business

Government ministers are due to meet next week to hammer out ways of streamlining the work of the cabinet, Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham said yesterday. Mr Paiboon, who oversees social affairs as well as the Social Development and Human Security Ministry, has been placed at the head of a new committee assigned by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to speed up the work of the cabinet.

His foremost tasks are to smoothen ministerial coordination and adjust bureaucratic channels to improve workflow, he said.

Mr Paiboon agreed that the pace of government work needed to be picked up if the cabinet was to clear the accumulating pile of assignments.

''Most of it is still stuck in the pipeline and the question before us is how to move them along faster,'' he said.

One solution is to amend cabinet resolutions to do away with red tape, he said, adding that the prime minister thought the process of considering and implementing actions was taking too long.

Time is of the essence, especially now when the government has a short tenure in office, he said.

The deputy prime minister said cabinet ministers will come together next week to discuss how the system could be streamlined.

Relevant agencies will figure out the priorities together, although the final say will rest with the prime minister, he said.

Mr Paiboon said that the cabinet's attention will be focussed on expediting issues queuing up to be presented to the National Legislative Assembly, rather than trying to sort out long-term, macro-projects.

Draft bills initiated by various ministries that have been presented to the cabinet will be screened on the basis of urgency, he said. Those deemed urgent will be forwarded to the NLA first.

He said bureaucracy was the main reason holding up cabinet decisions, not ministers who had switched to ''neutral gear'' on purpose, as some have criticised.

Bangkok Post

Last Updated : Saturday April 21, 2007