PM’s ban on overseas trips could pay off

After a series of less than positive news events such as claims of nepotism in the NCPO-installed National Legislative Assembly, a new government order that prohibits overseas trips by state officials is more than welcome.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announced the ban during his weekly televised talk last Friday.

In his maverick style, the prime minister said state officials should stay put during his administration, and “those wishing to go on overseas study trips should wait until a new elected government takes office”.

Needless to say, the order is driven largely by a need for belt-tightening on the part of the government.

Typically, when talking about study trips for state officials, it’s an open secret that some of them provide an excuse for officials to have a good time abroad.

Gen Prayut’s order reminds me of a story a friend told me many years ago about overseas trips in his organisation. It would send staff to attend a training programme in one developed country every year.

The training was the same, officials simply took turns to go.

One day, the host of the programme expressed his surprise, asking why none of the people who finished the courses passed on what they learned to their successors. And that’s how the training programme came to a sad end.

But to be fair, these officials did try to learn something at least.

Here I want to focus on another kind of “study tour” which is even more popular among some state officials, especially those at local administration level such as officials at tambon administration organisations.

The same applies for trips by those under high-level state training courses.

For these kinds of trips (most destinations are in Europe and the US), I can assure you, it’s more of a “tour” than “study.”

And it’s a good business for those involved. They hire a tour agency. Some administrators have academics as their advisers and it’s these scholars who take charge of trip proposals.

Even so, several trips are known to contain vague and broad objectives like ‘’to study the governance system of (the destination country)’’, which of course is something which we can learn from the internet at home. I have no idea how this kind of trip gets approval.

These kinds of trips do not just waste the state budget — our tax money — but could also embarrass those concerned, if they are found out.

Embassy staff have to arrange the trips, including accommodation. They are supposed to approach their counterparts in the destination county, asking for their help in arranging a programme.

More often than not, the trip participants ask for a short briefing, maybe an hour, leaving plenty of time to shop and go on tours, which we all know is the main objection of the trip. If those involved try to add substance in their itinerary, it would still be a waste, I would say.

This is because these people did not have the heart to study. Some functions, like a meeting with the host or a briefing at the embassy, serve merely as the justification for the trip.

I heard many participants simply failed to turn up at official short functions. For these people, a “no show” is not unusual. That casts a bad light on Thai officials as a whole.

But I would not agree that all trips should be cut, simply because Gen Prayut has ordered it. Some worthwhile trips should still be possible.

After all, we have to admit that as we no longer have ‘’political officials” — elected MPs — in office, the number of questionable trips such as the 2012 trip by former House speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont to England, France and Belgium, which took away seven million baht from state coffers, is substantially lower.

Yet it’s still unclear, however, if the PM’s order is applies to local administration agencies. I hope it does. So Prime Minister Prayut, please to do a bit more. Tighten up spending on trips by local administrations too. This can save us money and a potential national embarrassment.

Some functions, like a meeting with the host or a briefing at the embassy,

serve merely as the justification for the trip.