NCPO to improve Thai state enterprises

BANGKOK, June 21 (TNA) - Efficient and knowledgeable persons, especially in management, marketing, financial and security fields, will be recruited to join the boards of Thai state enterprises in the near future in a bid to create transparency, accountability and efficiency in the state-run firms. National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Spokesman Yongyuth Mayalarp told journalists of the move on Saturday, after a meeting of 56 state enterprises, held at the Royal Thai Army Headquarters in Bangkok and chaired by a NCPO deputy chief, General Chatchai Sarikalaya, earlier in the day. The spokesman quoted General Chatchai as saying that huge benefits offered to local state enterprises' board members in the past will also be reduced to an appropriate level. Besides, disbursements of budget expenditure for the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2014, must be asked only if necessary and there must be no more corruption. General Chatchai was also quoted as directing that local state enterprises whose projects must be carried out within the 2014 fiscal year and carry an investment of over 100 million baht each must propose them to the NCPO via the Finance Ministry for consideration. In a related development, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Interior MLPanadda Diskul, in his capacity as Acting Permanent Secretary for the Prime Minister's Office, told reporters that he is carefully studying the operation of MCOT Public Company Limited (MCOT), a most established Thai media firm, as proposed by its Labour Union. MCOT's Labour Union on Friday asked the NCPO to help appoint the firm’s new board members who are efficient to run the company and also proposed that MCOT is ready to become a model for the military junta to suppress corruption practices at local state enterprises.(TNA)