Performance Management Reforms in Thailand 111

its role in the intergovernmental fiscal system. This is recognized in Thailand, and work is already in progress toward this end. Nevertheless, budget and performance reporting reforms at local level will need to be strengthened if fiscal decentralization is to succeed.

Finally, Thailand also uses various quasi-fiscal measures for implementing public policy, such as government-directed lending by government financial institutions. It is therefore important for Thailand to incorporate these measures into a comprehensive fiscal framework as well.

5.5 Conclusion

With the continuous attempts at implementing performance management reform in the T hai public sector for 26 years since the Fifth National Economic and Social Development Plan, the results of the reform are now evident and have a positive impact on the country’s development. Process improvements with information technology are the successful cases that can reduce time of service delivery, e.g., e-revenue, e-health reimbursement, e-car license, and e-identification card.

However, there are some challenges and lessons to be learned in executing performance management. From the examples used in this chapter, including organization restructuring, process improvement with information technology, knowledge management, performance agreement, and budgeting reform, considerations regarding political policy, approach, and intervention need to be taken into account. The recommendations for performance management reforms include: appropriate approach to using information technology, clear guidelines in applying the concept used for knowledge management, setting the right performance measurement, supporting the organizational culture for performance management, and appropriate central evaluation structure with no duplication.

At the same time, the quality of the agencies’ budgeting process must be further strengthened. Moreover, a meaningful budget reform cannot be achieved simply by relying solely on technical improvements. Technical improvements are good innovations, but they are inadequate. The role of Parliament in the budget process must also be strengthened in order to ensure that the budget policies, priorities, outputs, and outcome are actually responsive to the needs of the people; this means that the political aspect of performance budgeting reform must be taken into account as well.

References

Blondal, J.R. and Kim, S.-I. (2006). “Budgeting in Thailand,” OECD Journal on Budgeting, Vol. 5, No. 3: 7–36.

Bray, D. and Konsynski, B. (2007). Improving Organizational Performance by Knowledge Management: The Influence of Employee Perception and Variances in Distributed E-Government and E-Business Organizations, in Seventh European Conference on e-Government, June (ssrn.com/abstract=962279).

Bureau of the Budget (1999). Budget Modernization Project, Technical notes, Bangkok, Thailand.

———(2000). Budget Document: Expenditure of Fiscal Year 2001, Bangkok: P.A. Living.

———(2001). Budget Document: Expenditure of Fiscal Year 2002, Bangkok: P.A. Living.

———(2002). Budget Document: Expenditure of Fiscal Year 2003, Bangkok: P.A. Living.

———(2003). Budget Document: Expenditure of Fiscal Year 2004, Bangkok: P.A. Living.

———(2004). Budget Document: Expenditure of Fiscal Year 2005, Bangkok: P.A. Living.

———(2005). Budget Document: Expenditure of Fiscal Year 2006, Bangkok: P.A. Living.

———(2006a). Budget in Brief, Bangkok: P.A. Living.

———(2006b). “Public Expenditure Management Review in Thailand,” 2006 Asian OECD Senior Budget Officials Meeting, December 14–15.

———(2007). Budget in Brief, Bangkok: P.A. Living.

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6.1 Background of Thailand’s Civil Service System

6.1.1 Civil Service Personnel

The Thai civilian workforce consists of approximately 2 million personnel working in 19 ministries (excluding the Ministry of Defense) and 147 departments. Of this workforce, about 365,000 or one-third are ordinary civil servants under the jurisdiction of the Civil Service Commission (CSC). The largest ministry in terms of number of personnel is the Ministry of Public Health with approximately 170,000 officials, while the two ministries with the smallest number of ordinary civil service officials are the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Ministry of Science and Technology with about 750 civil servants. Table 6.1 shows the main types of civilian workforce.

Although the size of the public sector is less than 3% of the country’s population and around 5% of the labor force, the proportion of public personnel expenditure runs in the opposite direction. The budget for the public sector’s expenses on the salaries and wages of its personnel is almost 30% of national budget, more than budget expenses on investment of the country, which is only about 10% of the budget (Bureau of the Budget 2009). This does not even include actual expenses on benefits and pensions, which usually account for about another 10% of the national budget. Concerning the size of personnel expenses, the government prohibits departments from creating additional positions unless the new positions are a trade-off with existing positions in order to compensate for the additional expenses the new positions will incur.1

6.1.2 Development of the Civil Service Human Resource System

Before 1928, human resource (HR) management in the Thai civil service was based on the patronage system where such functions as selection, recruitment, and promotion were not well regulated, leaving decisions on HR at the disposal of supervisors (Na Nakorn 2003). The first Civil Service Act B.E. 2471 (1928) transformed the Thai civil service into a merit system that relies on rules of law as well as the principles of competence, merit, and fairness.

The first act categorized civil service officials into three types: (1) ordinary civil service, which is the career service recruited through an examination process and entitles personnel to a pension on retirement; (2) special service, which are those who possess special skills that the government hire on a non-fulltime basis; and (3) government clerk.

The next major reform of the civil service was through the Civil Service Act B.E. 2518 (1975). This act changed the classification system from rank to position-based classification, which in turn created a job series and 11 grade levels and was supported by such related mechanisms as job

1Controlling public sector personnel, however, seems to contradict other government expansionary roles in society, including a universal coverage public health policy and a 12-year free education policy, which results in an increased workload for the civil service.

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Civil Service System in Thailand 115

Table 6.1 Types of Civilian Workforce in Fiscal Year 2007

Source: Adapted from Civilian Workforce in Thailand 2007, Office of the Civil Service Commission, Bangkok, 2008.

aIt should be mentioned that unlike many countries, several major state functions of the Thai public sector are implemented by central administration. This includes education and public health functions that together account for more than 900,000 personnel. This makes the degree of centralization of the Thai public sector rather high.

bPermanent employees and temporary employees are civil service staff with non-official status and are mainly hired for supporting functions. Permanent employees have no term of employment, while temporary employees are hired within one fiscal year. In 2004, the government employee system was introduced, employing the contract-based hiring approach to improve efficiency in hiring employees. It is expected that the government employee system will replace permanent and temporary employee systems (or at least become the majority of employee hiring) in the future.

description and step-wise salary structure. Other major changes under this act include: (1) the exclusion of “politician” from the Civil Service Act, defined under another specific law2; (2) the adoption of a “positive discipline” approach requiring managers to encourage their subordinates to follow discipline; and (3) a more strategic and expanded role of the CSC to perform an advisory role for the cabinet on both HR policy and on the civil service’s O&M policy (Na Nakorn 2003).

2This exclusion was to create a neutral civil service by prohibiting civil service officials from taking any political position at the same time. The laws on politicians, as a result, are prescribed under the Political Official Act B.E. 2518 (1975) (Kaewsri and Suchada 1983).

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116 Public Administration in Southeast Asia

The Civil Service Act B.E. 2535 (1992) then brought with it the influence of democracy forces as well as managerial and strategic components. The act changed the combination of the CSC from merely consisting of experts to a combination of ex o cio commissioners elected among high-level civil service officials, and selected commissioners. The inclusion of elected commissioners thus reflects a move toward a participative approach under the structure of the CSC, as five representatives of line departments are elected among permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries, directors general, and provincial governors. In addition, the act added section 3 that highlights the importance of performance through compensation and rewarding mechanisms.3 The role of the CSC also became more strategic as the act made the commission the advisor to the cabinet on the management aspect of the overall civil service. The position classification was also adjusted for the benefit of career advancement and the improvement of a compensation mechanism (through position allowance).

The most recent change in the civil service HR structure is the new Civil Service Act of 2008, which was enacted in January 2008 and came into effect in late January 2009. This act has five underlying principles (Vajrabhaya 2008). The first principle deals with “Managing Work,” which is pointed out under section 34 of the civil service regulations, which states that “the organization of civil officials shall be undertaken with a view to the result-based outcome, efficiency and good value in the discharge of State functions, and to make officials perform their duties with quality and virtuously and have a good quality of life.”4 The second principle is “Managing Self” as put under section 78, which deals with ethics, emphasizing that officials “exhibit honor and dignity,” “relentlessly insist on taking the correct action,” act with “honesty and responsibility,” be “transparent and accountable in performance of duties” without “any unfair discrimination,” and use “result-based determination” when making decisions. Section 78 also provides government with rule making and implementation pursuant to technical principles and professional ethics.

“Managing People” is the third principle that lies within section 42 covering recruitment and selection, performance evaluation, promotion, disciplinary action, and political impartiality. The Thai civil service is merit-based in fairly customary ways. In essence, this section requires government agencies to take into account that: (i) entry is based on the knowledge, competency, equality, fairness and interests of the government service; (ii) management is directed toward the end-result and efficiency of the organization, while avoiding unfair discrimination; (iii) promotion and conferment of other benefits should be done fairly, based on work products, capacities, and behaviors, without regard for political views or party affiliation; (iv) disciplinary proceedings should be impartial and without prejudice; and (v) human resource management should be politically neutral.

The fourth principle is “Jurisdiction.” The act covers the roles and responsibility of all key stakeholders in the realm of the civil service’s HR management system, including the cabinet, the prime minister, ministers, the CSC and its sub-commission, government agencies’ executives (including the permanent secretary), and civil service officials. Finally, the fifth principle of the act

3In particular, section 72 of the act specifies that in considering a salary increase for their subordinates, the supervisor should consider the subordinates’ quality and quantity of work, effectiveness, and efficiency as well

as sound behavior (Bureau of Personnel Development 1994).

4Good quality of life refers to a quality working environment that includes working atmosphere, appropriate benefits, and good relationships with co-workers and supervisors. One of the implications from this quality of life principle is the concept of flexi-time or flexi-pay for long-hour jobs, such as in the case of officials of the Department of Corrections who have to work more than 8 hours a day in prisons but receive a normal salary. Thus, section 34 can provide a good ground for either establishing a different pay range for the relevant job series or expanding manpower for the department.

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