Title: Draft Homeless Protection Act, B.E. …
The Cabinet agreed with the draft Homeless Protection Act, B.E. … and ordered the Office of the Council of State to take opinions of Court of Justice and Decentralization to Local Government Organization Committee into account and re-examine the draft before proposing to the House of Representatives.
Gist of the draft Act
1. Establish the Homeless Protection Committee, define tasks and authority, and determine term and termination of position.
2. Assign the Office of Welfare Promotion, Protection and Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups to be responsible for administrative work and preparation of meetings and activities of the aforementioned Committee and the Subcommittee.
3. Regulate the establishment of homeless shelters to be proposed to the Committee for approval of establishment and decision on authorized protection area.
4. Define tasks and authorities of homeless protection shelters.
5. Encourage local government organizations, public benefit organizations, community welfare organizations, private organizations, religious institutions and homeless people groups to run as homeless shelters or to be part of homeless protection.
6. Provide homeless people with rights to request for protection from the homeless shelters or homeless protection centers and mandate the homeless shelters or homeless protection centers to provide homeless people the protection.
7. Mandate homeless shelters or homeless protection centers to provide homeless people with necessary helps at the initial stage and transfer them to concerned agencies under the law.
8. Mandate homeless people to agree to attend physical and psychological rehabilitation and career training courses.
Title: Request for approval of draft Memorandum of Understanding on Mutual Cooperation between Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic
The Cabinet agreed with the following suggestions from the Ministry of Defense:
1. The Ministry of Defense is to arrange Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Mutual Cooperation between the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic.
2. Authorize Minister of Defense to sign the mentioned draft MOU.
3. Should the necessity arise to amend the draft MOU in the unessential parts that will not result in alteration of essence of draft MOU, the Ministry of Defense may proceed as appropriate.
Gist
The purposes of MOU on Mutual Cooperation between the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic are to develop and upgrade cooperation on security and to promote good relations between the armies of the two countries.
Title: Report on progress of the public cost estimating format
Following the suggestion from the Ministry of Finance, the Cabinet acknowledged the progress of the public cost estimating format, which was prepared in accordance with the Cabinet resolution on February 12, 2013 to modify criteria, methodologies, and standard of practices of the public cost estimating format.
Gist
Ministry of Finance reported that a follow-up meeting was held on May 1, 2013 on the progress of preparation for the public cost estimating format, and was attended by representatives from such concerned agencies as the Bureau of Budget, Office of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, Food and Drug Administration, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Public Debt Management Office, and the Office of National Anti-Corruption Commission. The followings are gist of the meeting:
1. The Comptroller General’s Department has developed the e-Government Procurement (e-GP) to accommodate the public cost estimates for non-construction work. The Comptroller General’s Department already circulated notification on the public cost estimates under the e-GP system to public sector, state enterprises, public organizations, and other government agencies.
2. Ministry of Public Health has established a sub-committee to consider and review the public cost estimates for medicines not listed in the National List of Essential Medicines and medical supplies. The sub-committee is expected finish the aforementioned consideration and review before August 2013.
3. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology has prepared guidelines, criteria, and manual for the cost estimation of application software, digital content, and animation developments and is expected to have the guideline ready for public agencies’ references before August 2013.
4. The Public Debt Management Office has established a committee to determine the public cost estimates format for consultancy services and is expected to submit to the cabinet for its consideration within August 11, 2013.
5. Bureau of Budget has made revision to the public cost estimates for durable goods to cover more diversified types of the durable goods for the public sector and government agencies’ references in preparing their annual budget expenditure.
Title: Rice Pledging Scheme, Year 2012/13, 2nd harvest
The Cabinet approved the resolutions made by the 3rd Cabinet Subcommittee (economic) in its 13/2013 meeting on June 7, 2013 regarding the approval of budget ceiling for Ministry of Commerce’s rice pledging scheme (year 2012/13, 2nd harvest) as proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Kittirat Na Ranong, Chair of the 3rd Cabinet Subcommittee. Gist as follows:
1. In case of necessity, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) must advance the funds while waiting for revenue from the release of products or from other financial sources, and must be done on a case-by-case basis and upon negotiation with Ministry of Commerce. As of December 31, 2013, Ministry of Commerce’s spending under the revolving fund ceiling of the rice pledging scheme for production years 2011/12 and 2012/13 must not exceed 500,000 million Baht (BAAC’s funds of 90,000 million Baht, and Ministry of Finance’s loan provision of 410,000 million Baht).
2. Revenue from the release of products since the production year 2011/12 on must be returned to BAAC for the amount of 90,000 million Baht before paying back loans from financial institutions, arranged and guaranteed by the Ministry of Finance, that are due within the fiscal year 2013.
3. Ministry of Finance will be responsible for the pay back of loan principles and interests, other expenses and total operating loss of the rice pledging scheme for the production year 2012/13.
4. In the case that the quantity of paddy under the 1st harvest of the rice pledging scheme (production year 2012/13) exceeds the ceiling quantity stipulated at a cabinet meeting, Ministry of Commerce is to request for the expansion of rice’s quantity and budget ceilings to the National Rice Policy Committee for consideration and further submission to the cabinet. However, the expansion of quantity and budget ceilings for the 2nd harvest of production year 2012/13 must not exceed the Cabinet’s already approved 22 million tons of rice and 345,000 million Baht of budget.
5. BAAC is to set aside the rice pledging scheme related operations as Public Service Account (PSA) and record them as off-budget obligations in order to identify impacts of the operation and to request for compensation for possible losses.
6. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and Ministry of Commerce must set up a supervision system on every stage of operation of the rice pledging scheme.