Managing public debt and personal time
PDMO boss Patricia Mongkhonvanit discusses her work-life balance.
Local and global interest rates have never been low like this before. Governments can borrow at a low rate, but no one knows whether the rate can be lowered in the future, so close monitoring is needed.
PATRICIA MONGKHONVANIT
DIRECTOR-GENERAL, PUBLIC DEBT MANAGEMENT OFFICE
Although women are increasingly taking the reins at corporations, they still make up a small share of those occupying senior civil service positions. But Thai-Spanish Patricia Mongkhonvanit has managed to enter those ranks.
Some follow in their parents’ footsteps to become state officials, but the dream of holding Thailand’s blue (i.e. official) passport since she was young motivated Mrs Patricia to pursue a civil service career.
Now 48, Mrs Patricia started her working life at the Revenue Department, where she spent about two decades after graduating from the Faculty of Political Science at Chulalongkorn University.
She rose through the ranks to director of the Revenue Department’s tax policy and planning division in 2014, deputy director-general and principal adviser on strategic tax administration in 2017 and inspector-general of the Finance Ministry in 2018, before taking the helm as director-general of the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) the following year.
In the Revenue Department’s tax policy and planning division, international tax was her first area of influence.
She was nominated by the UN to join a subcommittee on international tax, which drew members from many countries. This duty enabled her to acquire different perspectives, as some forms of taxation have been considered unfair treatment by underdeveloped countries.
At the moment, international tax is playing a vital role as the digital economy sets the global trend and the cross-border trade landscape evolves. The e-business tax — a levy on foreign-based online platform operators earning income domestically — has been implemented in several countries, but in Thailand’s case the law remains stuck in the legislative process.
Working at the Revenue Department for decades has instilled in Mrs Patricia a habit of requesting invoices every time she pays for goods or services. She also encourages such behaviour in her children.
LINE HANG-UP
She recalls having workaholic tendencies when she worked at the Revenue
Department. With a heavy workload, she stayed late at the office every weeknight.
“When I took responsibility for the e-filing unit, I chatted through Line to subordinates immediately after waking up at around 2am and failed to lock in the system to ask them what happened,” Mrs Patricia says. “I spent less time with family over the past 15-20 years. The chat application had made me a failure at work-life balance.”
She got the idea one day that setting a limit was necessary to improve the balance. She then made a big change in working style.
“I often get ideas at 1-2am and used to Line them [subordinates], but now I send them the message around 8.30am for cases that are not urgent,” Mrs Patricia says. “I’ve tried to avoid texting them late at night or early in the morning to respect their time.”
But working hard in the past still furnished a lot of experience and the opportunity to work with many executives and gurus.
“Each of them has a different style,” she says. “Someone always requests documents and information, making me well prepared to serve demand, and this what I want to see from younger officials. They should prepare documents and information and give them to me immediately when I want them. I was always accompanied by bosses at meetings, and I had to know what they wanted when they turned to face me.”
Don’t surprise your bosses, she learned. Let them know what’s really happening.
DEBT CHALLENGE
Managing public debt amid the world’s financial fluctuations is a challenging task right now, as various external factors remain unpredictable.
“Local and global interest rates have never been low like this before,” Mrs Patricia says. “Governments can borrow at a low rate, but no one knows whether the rate can be lowered in the future, so close monitoring is needed.”
Although the country’s public debt is in good shape, it could be improved by refinancing high-rate debt to take advantage of the low-rate environment to save costs, and by turning short-term debt to long-term.
The government’s interest cost averages 3% a year.
Thailand’s credit rating is another focus, and it’s the duty of the PDMO to convince rating agencies that the country is free of credit risk and a controllable environment.
Four international credit rating agencies — S&P Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service and Rating and Investment Information Inc — in 2019 raised their outlook on Thailand’s sovereign credit rating from stable to positive.
Running up public debt for infrastructure investment is not viewed as a threat to the country, as such borrowing is used for development. Each project’s investment has been vetted and deemed worthwhile by the National Economic and Social Development Council and the PDMO.
Public borrowing is set to accelerate over the next five years, but the ratio of public debt to GDP is estimated at far below the ceiling of 60%, due to a larger base of GDP.
The ratio is predicted to reach 48-49% in the next five years, up from 41.2% at the moment.
Under Mrs Patricia’s leadership, the PDMO looks set to issue its first-ever sustainability bonds to keep pace with rising demand after launching an amortised bond last year. Sustainability bonds are debt instruments whose proceeds are used to finance green and social projects.
The PDMO is a small department, a fact that allows its chief to easily meet with subordinates and coach newcomers.
Decentralising authority to her deputy director and senior officials and encouraging participation of junior officials are her management style, Mrs Patricia says.
RUNNING THE SHOW
Regarding sports, she prefers those with fast-moving action such as running, swimming and tennis. But running is her favourite now, as it can be done everywhere and alone, and it does not require expensive accessories.
Mrs Patricia says she never sets life goals and prefers to stick to the present.
“Do the best. I like working, and we can work wherever if we enjoy working,” she says. “Moreover, I believe that opportunities will come and go, so we will lose them if we do not take them.”