Problems Relating to Public Consultation and Regulatory Impact Assessment on Legislative Drafting in Thailand

Abstract

     Public consultation and regulatory impact assessment has been implemented to government agencies in Thailand since 2531 BE (1988 CE) through the cabinet resolutions, regulations of the Office of the Prime Minister, royal decrees It was until a significant milestone that they have appeared in Section 77 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand 2560 BE. To comply with the spirit of Section 77, Office of the Council of State has complied The Act on Legislative Drafting and the Evaluation of the Outcomes of Law B.E. 2562 which is considered as the central law for the drafting or amendments of laws, creating people’s awareness of laws by using information technology systems as well as assessment for the achievement of law enforcement at the time.

      However, despite the existence of the legal policies regarding the public consultation and regulatory impact Assessment, the provision itself and its implementation and practice clearly show that the government agencies have paid more attention to the public consultation and regulatory impact assessment, in terms of pattern rather than the content quality both for criteria, process, and the responsible departments. As a result, the nation’s legal development has been neither in line with their spirit nor at the same standards as the best practices that are in other countries yet.

     Therefore, Office of the Council of State and the Secretariat of the cabinet which are the two main agencies responsible for overseeing the legislative process of government agencies should have set some solid criteria to facilitate the work processes so that the government agencies will be able to implement those guidelines and response in concrete actions for effectiveness and productivity.

      To support having the effective public consultation and regulatory impact assessment, the guidelines of work process should consist of 5 significant components as follows; (1) Distinctly prescribing the types of laws and those legal exceptions that not need to be in the process of public consultation and regulatory impact assessment (2) Integrated work with specialized sociologist and other relevant inter-professionals (3) Setting a clearinghouse that functions monitoring and controlling the quality of public consultation and regulatory impact assessment including being an advisory to government agencies (4)Supporting the potential of public consultation of stakeholders by strengthening the participation bond for stakeholders that will truly reflect their opinions and the needs of groups and people involved (5)Establishing mechanisms for reviewing appropriateness and assessing the quality of applicable laws in order to review how the legal measures were implemented which will help lead to the removal of unnecessary laws or which causing undue burden on the business sectors as well as making modern laws in line with the social, economic conditions and comply with the global dynamics.