“A study of Decentralized Local Government in Nong Yao Sub-district, Muang Saraburi District, Saraburi Province”

C. AnandArpana KumariPallavi RaniShubham Mehta

Jaya SharmaRohit Kumar SharmaAkramul HoqueMrityunjay RaiRajan Kumar

Tambon Administrative Organization (TAO), Local Self Government for Managing Rural

Management

Presented by : Group No. 2

Location & Background

Muang Saraburi District

Thailand Saraburi Province

Muang Saraburi District is subdivided into 9 sub-districts (tambon) and 2 sub-district municipalities (or TAO municipalities), which are covering a total of 77 villages (muban). The Saraburi town (thesaban muang) covers the whole area of tambon Pak Phriao. The Phok Phaek township (thesaban tambon or TAO municipality) covers some part of tambon Nong No. Recently, Kut Nok Plao and Takut TAOs have been upgraded to TAO municipalities.

Nong Yao Tambon Administrative Organization

NONG YAO TAMBON ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION (TAO)

General Information:

Nong Yao TAO is the medium size of local administrative organization and was established in 1994.

The total area of Nong Yao TAO is approximately 33,145 square kilometers (around 20,715 Rai). It is located in the south of Muang Saraburi district and is far away from Muang Saraburi district about 2 kilometers.

.Topography:

Most area of Nong Yao TAO is flat with a little bit slope from the east to the west side. There are three small mountains covering village 1, 9, and 10 respectively.

Nong Yao TAO consists of 10 villages with a total population and households around 7,582 persons (male = 3,743 and female = 3,839) and 2,676 households, respectively (Table 1.2). The density of population in average is 230 persons/square kilometers.

Village No.

Village Name

No. of Households

Population

Total PopulationMales Females

1 Ban Khok Sa-aad 860 1,107 1,173 2,280

2 Ban Nong Yao Tai 475 656 573 1,229

3 Ban Nong Kurng Chang 120 235 245 480

4 Ban Tha Dok Kaew 101 180 205 385

5 Ban Ma Kam Yong 64 118 120 238

6 Ban Phue 45 102 102 204

7 Ban Pa Pai 98 181 205 386

8 Ban Nong Jak 118 218 235 453

9 Ban Nong Yao Sung 317 359 339 698

10 Ban Poo 478 587 642 1,229

Total 2,676 3,743 3,839 7,582

Administrative Area and Population Classified by Village and Gender, as of January 2011

VISION:

“Being in high spirits community, transparency in administration and following the philosophy of sufficiency economy lifestyle by assessing the needs of the people.”

OBJECTIVES: To administer all tasks of local community by applying the philosophy of

sufficiency economy approach and also to promote democracy through local governance.

To set up good integration of team work of local government officials in order to serve the needs and to solve the problems of local people effectively and efficiently 

Conti-----

To work in accordance with the concept of “Good Governance Practice”  

To enhance and promote people’s participation through participatory process at all levels (e.g. local people, chief of village headmen, village headmen, participatory process at sub-district level, the village committee) for involving in local management participation 

Overall Organizational Structure of TAO

In addition, Nong Yao TAO has set up the Committee of People’s Participation through Participatory Process in order to promote and encourage local people to participate more in local community plan. The structure of such a committee is mainly comprised of 10 presidents of people’s participation through participatory process who are representatives of each village in the TAO.

Furthermore, the TAO has established the Committee of Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) for providing good health care services to local people in a timely manner by working along with the Public Health and Environmental Division of the TAO and Nong Yao Tambon Health Promoting Hospital. The VHVs’ committee consists of 10 presidents of VHVs who are representatives of each village.

Also, there is the President of Cultural Council in the TAO to promote and conserve local culture with appropriate activities.

DIVISION IN TAO AND THEIR RESPONSIBLITY

TAO’s Administrative Office

General Administration

Local Plan and Policy

Law

Prevention and Providing Public Relief Services.

Tourism Promotion

TAO Council’s Tasks

Local Committee’s Tasks

Welfare and Community Development Plan

Agricultural Promotion

TOTAL 22 STAFFS.

Treasury Division

Financial Tasks

Accounting

Revenue Collection and Development

.

TOTAL 7 STAFFS.

PUBLIC WORK DIVISION

Construction

Layout and Control Building

Public Infrastructure

Town Plan .

Maintenance Work.

Educational Administration

Academic knowledge and education plan.

Kindergarten and primary school education.

Basic education.

Promotion of Education, Religious, and

Cultural Sub-division that is responsible .

.

EDUCATION, RELIGIOUS, AND CULTURAL

DIVISION

Social Welfare

Occupational Promotion and Development for

Women Groups

Environmental Sanitation

Health Promotion and Public Health

Conserving of good local custom, religion,

arts, and culture,

Development of children and youth’s activities.

FUNCTIONS OF TAO

To set up local community plan

To provide and keep maintenance of public infrastructure to local community

To promote various sorts of occupational training groups for local people to create

employment in local community

To promote local tourism

To provide educational program/course and social welfare services to improve quality of

life of children, women, senior citizens, and vulnerable groups.

To provide and keep maintenance of recreational areas within local community

To promote democracy, equity, rights and freedom of local people

To enhance and promote people’s participation through participatory process in setting up

local development plan and other tasks of local community

To keep clean and tidy surroundings area as well as to protect peace and order of local

community.

STRATEGIES OF TAO FOR DEVELOPMENT

Summary Account of Development ProjectA Three-year Development Plan

Nong Yao Tambon Administrative Organization

1. Education To provide free lunch and school milk as well as scholarships for students To improve children development center for increasing better study environment To promote and preserve Thai culture via students .

2. Social Welfare To improve and renovate “Nong Yao Tambon Health Promoting Hospital” To provide sufficient medical supplies to serve local people To disseminate knowledge about the rights of consumer protection to people.

3. Public Health To provide monthly salary support (with the same rate at 500 Baht/Month) to senior

citizens, people with disabilities (PWD), and AIDS patients Elderly, PWDs, and AIDS patients will have better quality of life

4. Infrastructure To provide sufficient public facilities e.g. road, electricity, village water supply,

communication system, village tower broadcasting, sports playground etc Construction various types of public utilities e.g. roads throughout all 10 villages/

water tubes/ sports playgrounds, exercise club, meeting halls, community learning center, village tower and TAO’s broadcasting, public light street, and public telephone, etc.

Construction various types of public utilities e.g. roads throughout all 10 villages/ water tubes/ sports playgrounds, exercise club, meeting halls, community learning center, village tower and TAO’s broadcasting, public light street, and public telephone, etc.

5. Strengthening Community

To provide peace and order of local community

To rehabilitate drug addicted patients

Crime prevention for protecting security of life and assets of local people.

6. Community Occupations

To reduce unemployment rate in community by creating new occupational

groups

To enhance production skills and expand marketing channel

To increase supplementary income for local people

7. Water Supply

To provide water pumping for farmers.

8. New Theory ApproachTo provide good breeding of crops and animals for farmers.To promote good breeding of paddy rice for farmers.To support electricity expense for farming during off-season

9. Agriculture Technology Transfer CenterTo provide fertilizer fund for supporting farmers.To set up agriculture technology transfer center.To promote people/farmers to apply the philosophy of sufficiently economy approach (such as new theory approach) for agricultural purposes.

Development for administrative management of environmental and natural resources

To raise awareness of local people to conserve environment and natural resources

especially in water

To encourage local people to plant trees on some important holidays

To encourage people to protect clean surrounding areas of community

Preservation of religion, arts, culture, custom, and indigenous knowledge

To preserve and promote local culture and custom

To raise awareness of local people to concern more on elderly group as well as on

the value of local culture and custom.

To promote and raise awareness of good moral ethics for local people

To promote and disseminate information of religious holidays and information about

local wisdom (or indigenous knowledge) of sub-district.

Development of local organization and local government officials in according to good

management practices

To raise awareness of election process and to provide good moral ethics for local officials.To provide tax payment knowledge for local people and to increase effectiveness of tax revenue collectionTo develop quality of services for local people by enhancing good relationship between TAO and local peopleTo develop ICT system for supporting TAO’s tasks and dissemination of information to people

Tourism development

To promote tourist attractions in Nong Yao TAO as famous/major spots of tourism in Saraburi province.To make impression of tourists who have opportunities to visit.All roads and areas along with the roads in Nong Yao TAO to be improved for supporting tourism development.

Development of democratic system and civil society process

To provide political knowledge at all levels (both local and national level)

to local people

To encourage people to use their rights of election vote and to involve in

political process

To develop service system for dissemination of villages information

throughout all 10 villages, thus, people could access to updated information

within a timely manner.

To develop and promote civil society process via means of people’s

participation.

Strengths Weaknesses

1. Nong Yao community is located nearby urban area and most local people has good knowledge, therefore, they could understand local management policy and find market for selling their production easily

1. Insufficient of infrastructure support because increasing number of population who moved from other areas to settle down at Nong Yao sub-district

2. Convenience for performing good administrative management and solving local problems within a timely manner due to adequate number of local staffs

2. Lack of awareness of some local staffs to attend trainings for developing their potential

3. Sufficient local staff, modern equipment and office building which leading to work effectively

3. Local staffs still lack of skill and knowledge expertise on their work

4. Convenience of communication network because Nong Yao TAO is located close to Muang Saraburi district.

4. TAO lacks of adequate budget to promote tourist spots within sub-district

Opportunities Threats

1. A wide range of marketing channel and also easily access to input sources and raw material

1. Obstacles of city planning and Infrastructure development Because there are limited areas of TAO and some areas are occupied by government office and other state-owned offices.

2. Potential for developing local community to be “ Eco-tourism Attraction” due to abundant of natural resources

2. Limitations of natural resources developmentdue to less awareness of local People

3. To enhance and develop knowledge skill as well as moral ethics to local staffs for increasing the effectiveness of their work performance

3. Insufficient of local staffs which leading to delay of work and budget

4. To develop tourist sightseeing to be well-known among tourists.

4. Lack of budget

Primary Stakeholders Secondary Stakeholders

Villagers InternalElected membersTAO council membersTAO executivesTAO Public Health CentreSchools & templesCommittee of Village health volunteersCommittee of peoples participation

ExternalCommunity development district OfficeProvincial skill dev. CentreProvincial Social dev. & Human security officePAOAgriculture district officeSocial dev. & Human Security centre

Sources of Revenue for TAO

Taxes collected by local government this includes two types taxes and non-

taxes, for e.g housing tax, land tax, signboard tax and slaughtering tax. Non

tax composes of fees, licenses, fines and revenues from properties, public

utilities and local government enterprises.

Additions on central government taxes. By legislation local governments are

entitled to collect an additional percentage on top of those tax categories

collected by the central government. Two main categories of these taxes

include VAT, specific business tax, liquor tax, excise and gambling taxes.

Special revenues consists of grants, loans and subsidies from central

government.

Financials of Fiscal year 2010 ( 1st oct, 2009- 30th sep, 2010)

6%

59%

1%

1%

17%

16%

Sources of Revenues

TaxesShared TaxesFees and FinesMiscelleneousUncondiitonal grantConditional Grant

17%13%

2%12%

14%

22%

11%2% 6%2%

Expenditure

Central BudgetSalaryWageTemporary wage honorariumgeneral expenditureEquipmentpublic utilitiesdevelopment projectsfurniture

Problems

• Lack of sufficient water for consumption and agricultural purposes.

• U-turn problems on the main road

• Lack of good cooperation among related organizations in dealing with

irrigation problems

Comparison of Local self government between Thailand and India

Thailand India

1. It is termed as Tambon Administrative Organization (TAO), consists of various Villages (Mubans).

It is termed as Village/Gram Panchayat or Gram Samiti some times. A Gram Panchayat constitute of various villages (Gram)

Similarities:Representatives in both countries are elected democratically.Power is decentralized in both cases.Responsible for rural infrastructure and utilities development in both cases.All schemes are routed through local government.Autonomy in planning and implementation

Dissimilarities: TAO implements projects through participatory way effectively.Indian system completely depends on central and state fund for developmental activities. TAO encourages self sufficiency concept and entrepreneurship among the

people through effective market linkages Revenue is collected at TAO Level and in India it is collected at Tehsil level People are directly involved in planning process whereas in India only the

elected members are involved in planning process Reservation

Thailand India

Strengths:Less dependent on external support for implementing any rural development projectInternal audit is done to ensure that no misuse of funds and there is no corruptionAdministration and Management is better in terms of execution and workingThere is a particular system in place and

StrengthAbundant fund available for rural development projects

GapsMore efficient and effective technology can be used for faster communication\For undertaking projects related to environment, disaster management and agriculture TAO lacks expert human resource

GapsDependent on higher authority for accepting and passing the development planPachayats are mostly under the influence of powerful and strong sections of people and only serve their interestsNo monitoring and auditing at panchayat level

Lessons Learnt

Efficient planning mechanism which involves community through participatory planning process

Development plans are made according to local needs Revenues are generated from tambon level which makes them

less dependent on central funds on developmental activities

Conclusion

Plans formulated on the basis of need of the local people

Three -year plan is good approach for holistic development

THANK YOU