"Sirikanya" sees the new cabinet, not selected based on individual abilities, only "Chusak Sirinil" is suitable to sit as a minister in the Prime Minister's Office, looking at the law, but ready to give an opportunity to work, waiting to see if it meets the target or not, emphasizing monitoring the budget usage in every policy, preventing corruption Ms. Sirikanya Tansakul, a party-list MP of the Prachachon Party, spoke about the voting approach of the Prachachon Party in considering the draft budget bill for fiscal year 2025 in the 2nd and 3rd readings. The Prachachon Party still upholds its original stance that it voted in the 1st reading that it would not agree with the draft budget bill for fiscal year 2025 in the 2nd and 3rd readings. Even though at that time, it was still the Move Forward Party and had the opportunity to work intensively in the committee and subcommittee levels, it still could not adjust or reduce the budget as it should have been and still felt that it was an unsatisfactory budget. Th erefore, it upholds its original stance of voting against this draft bill. After this, what will the opposition party do to monitor the budget that has already been enforced? Because there has been a debate about the use of the budget that suggests corruption. Ms. Sirikanya said that it is the duty of the MPs to monitor the budget use, which does not end with the drafting of the budget bill. We still have to monitor it. There have been discussions on many projects that are at risk of corruption or that provide benefits to a particular private sector, since the 2024 budget. Setting the budget in the same way without amending the TOR may result in a repeat of the incident. Therefore, we must continuously monitor the budget use to ensure that it does not lead to incidents that lead to corruption in various ministry-level projects. As for the opposition, how do you view the cabinet of Ms. Paethongtarn Shinawatra's government in terms of appointing individuals? Ms. Sirikanya said that we still see the establishm ent of the cabinet that does not use specific knowledge and expertise as a factor in selecting the cabinet. Of the entire cabinet, we see only Mr. Chusak Sirinil as having sufficient knowledge and expertise in law to be the Prime Minister's Office Minister in charge of legal matters. As for the others, they are still politicians whose abilities we have not seen yet, to be able to manage the specific tasks of each ministry. However, we must give these ministers a chance to start working first so that we can inspect whether their work is efficient and achieves the goals that have been set. After the government's policy statement to the parliament, what will the Prachachon Party be keeping a close eye on besides the digital wallet project? Ms. Sirikanya said that, in fact, we are preparing for the event because the policy statement has been moved up to next week. It is not just the flagship policy of the digital wallet that we will be keeping an eye on, but we must also look at all flagship projects, both those that have been initiated since the government of Mr. Settha Thavisin and new projects that have occurred during the past period of Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister. We are trying to predict the questions on how much of those policies and visions will be translated into the policies of the Paethongtarn government. We have not seen the policy statement yet, but we have already predicted the questions in advance. Source: Thai News Agency
Monday, September 16, 2024