File photo : Kittiratt Na-Ranong
A group of 416 former staffers of the Bank of Thailand (BOT) have urged the selection committee to choose a person who is honest, competent, fair, transparent and without political connections as the next chairman of the board of the central bank at its meeting on Monday.
The group comprising of former executives and staff made the appeal in an open letter, addressed to the selection committee.
It comes just a day after more than 100 academics and four former governors of the bank had expressed serious concerns over political interference in the affairs of the central bank.
The former staffers said that the bank’s board has a key role in the setting of the policy framework of the central bank, although it has no role in setting fiscal policy or policies to maintain the stability of financial institutions.
According to the Bank of Thailand Act, the board is authorised to select scholars to sit on the fiscal policy board, the policy board for financial institutions and to select senior central bank officials, such as the assistant governors.
Due to the importance of the board chairman, theysaid that it is imperative that they have high ethical standards on top of the other required qualifications, particularly the requirement that the chairman must refrain from actions which are considered to be a conflict of interest.
The chair must be politically impartial and should be a role model in preserving the credibility and image of the central bank.
It has been widely speculated that the Finance Ministry will nominate Kittiratt Na-Ranong, a former deputy prime minister and finance minister in the administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
