'Return fund money'

A huge Bt700-billion fund operated by the Social Security Office (SSO) should be given back to beneficiaries or managed under a new investment scheme, before it is too late and retirement pay-outs have to be paid in three years, according to a Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) study.

Aside from a sluggish effort to make profits, as cited in many reports, Worrawan Charnduaywit, who conducted the study, said the "worst thing" about the SSO operation was its was allowed to spend 10 per cent of the fund on as accumulative operational costs each year.

"Now the cost is up to Bt10 billion spent each year on management, salaries, travel and meeting fees, hotel allowances and other expenses, although the SSO claims it spends only 3-4 per cent each year," he said.

"But looking at how directors run the SSO, you may find that Bt1 billion is way too much."

The SSO was established and functions as a foundation in which managers "lack a sense of responsibility to beneficiaries". That's because the representatives of employers and beneficiaries are often selected, as SSO directors, by SSO management and Labour Ministry leaders, which represent the authorities in the three-part mechanism under the SSO, as a government agency.

"What we have always seen is that the representatives of employers and beneficiaries are all the same people because they are awarded with board membership by the SSO and ministry, for 'not causing trouble'," Worrawan explained.

"Under this structure, we have had all along the SSO operating for decades picking directors and governing them, instead of the SSO being run by leaders that should be selected by directors, who genuinely represent employers and beneficiaries." Worrawan is a TRDI expert on social and labour issues.

He said the quota for a quorum requiring only eight of 15 board members to make a decision or approval was also dangerous.

One example was a 2008 decision to approve giving rice seed worth Bt1 billion to beneficiaries as a gift, which was eventually scrapped.

Worrawan repeated statements by SSO critics and labour leaders that the Bt700 billion would be drop from 2014 when the first retirement pay-outs are due, after the first group of beneficiaries reach 60 years of age.

He said no political parties were interested in solving the SSO's problems and no labour ministers wanted to touch it, because it was a sensitive issue that would hit their popularity.