STREET WISE
Better safe than sorry
It was a big surprise earlier this week that caretaker Finance Minister Thanong Bidaya did not approve GE Capital's proposal to acquire more than 25 per cent of Bank of Ayudhya.
He said as a caretaker minister, he doubted if he had the authority to approve the proposal, and that he would forward the matter to the Cabinet. In fact the interim Cabinet should not have higher authority than Thanong himself to approve the deal. The problem seems to be that if Thanong approved it, he alone would be left carrying the can if anything went wrong. Meanwhile, forwarding the issue to the Cabinet means all 39 ministers would need to approve it. If anything goes wrong then, all 39 could be held responsible. Flashing back, caretaker Transport Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal did a similar thing when it came to the bidding for the three mass-transit routes, which have a combined construction cost estimated at Bt145 billion. He did not go ahead with the bidding for the routes, which were approved by the Cabinet nearly two years ago. He instead proposed the terms of reference to the Cabinet for approval. It seems Thanong, the two-time finance minister, knows more about politics - involving as many people as possible in a decision is certainly a safer strategy.
achara_d@nationgroup.com
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