Members of local administrative bodies have cried foul over hefty cuts to their budgets which they say could affect their work and lead to corruption.
However, the government said it supports decentralisation, including budgets, but it needs checks and balances as well as transparent spending.
These views were expressed Tuesday during local bodies' meeting with Prime Minister's Office Minister ML Panadda Diskul, whose earlier accusation of extravagant spending against some local officials angered the administrative bodies.
Prime Minister's Office permanent secretary ML Panadda Diskul, fifth from left, holds hands with local administration representatives at Government House during the Tuesday confrontation. The officials were in Bangkok to discuss ways to coordinate local and national government work. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)
Their representatives called for a review of budget management and more support for decentralisation to allow them to better handle locals' problems.
"Money must be sufficiently allocated to local administrative bodies," said Chaimongkhon Chairop, chairman of the Provincial Administration Organisation (PAO) Council of Thailand.
Mr Chaimongkhon, also head of the Sakon Nakhon PAO, was referring to the National Council for Peace and Order's (NCPO) decision to halve the 60-billion-baht budget allocated to local bodies.
Previously this budget financed local bodies' general tasks, but for the 2015 fiscal year, the NCPO transferred 30 billion baht to the budget supervised by central government, Mr Chaimongkhon said. The local bodies disagreed because they want to manage the budget themselves.
In his view, this raises doubts over the NCPO's efforts against corruption and centralisation.
He wondered why the NCPO cut local administrative bodies' budgets when their spending can be easily monitored and gave the money to specific projects which are prone to corruption.
Such budget allocation may allow members of local administrative bodies to use their connections with central government officials to ask for money, Mr Chaimongkhon said.
Also, the new budget plan "bunches up money" rather than distributing it nationwide, said Noppadol Keawsupat, chairman of the Tambon Administration Organisation of Thailand.
The NCPO said it toppled the previous government because of its alleged centralisation. But that atmosphere of centralisation persists, Mr Chaimongkhon said.
"There are no elections for members of local administrative bodies whose terms end. Power now belongs to the central government and state officials," he said, criticising the current approach to appoint, not elect, people to the posts.
This adds to their worries over the budget issue. Local administrative bodies are committed to working for people in their areas, but now their power is limited and their financial resources are not sufficient, said Kriangkrai Phoomlaochaeng, chairman of the National Municipal League of Thailand.
The government can try to relieve their financial burdens by not having them spend their budgets on "populist projects" which are supposed to be the responsibility of ministries, he said.
Money for the elderly pension fund should be managed by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, while financial support for projects giving free milk to students should be handled by the Education Ministry, Mr Kriangkrai explained.
Usually the committee plans budget allocation for local bodies but, under the unusual political circumstances, the NCPO must consider the budget plan faster without consulting the committee, said office chief Wirachai Chomsakhon.
ML Panadda said his office will meet today to discuss the issue along with Budget Bureau representatives.