CEO to have power to move district chiefs

PHUKET: The Ministry of Interior has announced that the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of five provinces, who will take over from provincial governors on October 1 in an experimental program aimed at giving provincial leaders more autonomy, will be able to authorize the transfer of district office chiefs who are deemed not to be doing their job properly. Under the current system, provincial governors can recommend that district office chiefs be moved, but the Ministry of Interior must approve any such move before it can be carried out. Dr Sumeth Chailerdwanitkul, Phuket’s Deputy Provincial Governor, told the Gazette that the CEO will be able to move a chief only to another district within his province, such as from Muang District to Kathu District, but not out of the province. Phuket Governor Pongpayome Vasaputi, who has been named as Phuket’s first CEO in this year-long program, will go to Bangkok next Monday to meet with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the four other CEOs-designate to discuss the new system of governance.