Govt plans smart cards for monks
Cabinet acts to stem temple scandals
The government has raised a proposal for monks to have smart cards that show their backgrounds to enable scrutiny by authorities.
The proposal has been approved by the cabinet, PM’s Office Minister Ormsin Chivapruck said, adding Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam asked him to draw up a plan for its implementation. The deputy PM also assigned the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) to study the idea.
The smart card plan is part of the government’s attempt to address a series of temple scandals, mostly involving monks who had sought monetary benefits from the temples.
Mr Ormsin said he would seek the opinions of three senior monks who are members of the Sangha Supreme Council regarding the idea.
The ministry said he would hold a meeting with the three monks — Phra Prom Molee, the fifth ecclesiastical regional governor; Phra Prom Munee, of Wat Ratchabophit Maha Simaram; and Phra Prom Bundit, abbot of Wat Prayurawongsa was — along with NOB director-general Pongporn Pramsaneh next Wednesday.
The smart cards will contain key information about the monks they are assigned to, including when they were ordained, which temples they are attached to, when they were promoted, whether they had left the monkhood before, and if they had any records of criminal offences or drug abuse, Mr Ormsin said.
Officials would be able to check the backgrounds of each monk using these cards, the minister said. Currently, monks hold paper-based identification documents that are difficult to track.
Mr Ormsin said although the process of making smart cards and setting up data centres would be expensive, the new approach would be more much more effective and the stored information could be useful in the long run. For instance, monthly allowances were sometimes mistakenly paid to monks who had passed away, most likely because of the slow process of verifying information about the monks, he said.
The meeting will also touch upon how temples should make their income statements and expense accounts available for examination, he said. The NOB requires temples to submit their financial statements, but most temple accounts do not meet accepted standards and lack details.
NOB officials had asked temples to prepare their balance sheets using an approach that confused the monks. Only a small number of temples were able to follow the NOB’s instructions as they do not have a background in accounting, he said. Mr Ormsin said he has instructed the NOB to inform temples that they only need to prepare income and expense accounts with necessary details.
The income and expense accounts would help the NOB to examine the transparency in temple finances. According to a research by the National Institute of Development Administration, a temple on average has an income of 3.2 million baht and expenses of about 2.8 million baht per year. The same research also found there was a wide gap between large temples and small ones in terms of their annual expenses and income.