Five-star salaries too fat

Five-star salaries too fat

In a move that has perplexed many, the junta-appointed National Legislative Assembly (NLA) yesterday approved in principle a bill that aims to "legalise" the fat pay cheques of generals, admirals and air chief marshals who have been awarded the "special" five-star rank in the military.

The issue once again sheds light on the lack of transparency and raised questions about the value of defence spending.

For one thing, Thailand has far too many generals, admirals and air chief marshals -- about 1,500 to 2,000 in total -- who are entitled to fringe benefits and allowances in addition to their salary.

These five-star personnel are granted the top-level of pay "step 14", or Nor 9 in Thai -- while their peers, who are generals, admirals and air chief marshals but are not awarded the special rank, receive the "step 13" salary.

Oddly, the current regulation states that "step 14" is the pay level given to those whose ranks are deemed equal to field marshals, admirals of the fleet and marshals of the Royal Thai Air Force -- positions that were scrapped in 1973.

As a result, numerous military and Defence Ministry bigwigs have this five-star rank.

Details of the bill are too technical for lay-people to understand. Veteran activist Srisuwan Janya earlier alleged it was an attempt by the Defence Ministry to raise the salary base of the military top ranks at a time in which, he said, the average Thai has suffered from an economic downturn under the military junta.

But Deputy Defence Minister Chaicharn Changmongkol defended the move. He yesterday explained the legislation aims to remove the outdated references from the regulation. Then, it will "legalise" the salary payment for the five-star group by re-categorising them as generals, admirals and air chief marshals who are entitled to "the special pay scale".

One wonders why the Defence Ministry has to keep this top pay scale active instead of doing away with it, when the five-star personnel are already entitled to other allowances that come along with their positions of, for example, defence permanent secretary or army chief.

The move may not have stirred so much controversy had the NLA not approved salary hikes for military personnel three times in four years under the junta. Critics have their point that the NLA is not the right body to make such decisions because more than half of its 250 members are military personnel.

It is like giving salary hikes to yourself and those in your own circle.

In February 2015, the NLA approved pay hikes for judges and prosecutors of military courts, saying it was an effort to make their salaries equal to those of their civilian court peers.

In fact, the NLA did not point out that their qualifications are different. While judges of civilian courts are required to be law school graduates and approved by the bar, military court judges are not obligated to posses the same qualifications.

A month later, in March 2015, the NLA approved a salary hike for defence personnel and defence cadets. In November of last year, it also gave the green light to the adjustment of positions and allowances for academics teaching in defence institutes.

At the same time, the NLA has approved year-on-year increases to the annual budget allocated to the Defence Ministry.

Since the coup, the Defence Ministry has been ranked among the government's top five spenders.

Against these questionable salary hikes and the increasing defence spending is a seeming lack of justification because the country is neither at war nor facing imminent security threats.

The transparency and value of defence spending has been increasingly questioned, but those questions remain largely unanswered.

The Defence Ministry's efforts to maintain top salaries for special, five-star military personnel is just the tip of the iceberg.

Editorial

Bangkok Post editorial column

These editorials represent Bangkok Post thoughts about current issues and situations.

Email : anchaleek@bangkokpost.co.th

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