On June 30, at the Future Forward Building, นายวิโรจน์ ลักขณาอดิศร, the Bangkok Governor's executive team of พรรคประชาชน, together with the 22 prospective members of the สภากรุงเทพมหานคร (ส.ก.) from พรรคประชาชน, announced the nomination for the Chairman of สภากรุงเทพมหานคร (กทม.), along with an agenda to push for a transparent council in the era of ผู้ว่าฯ ชัชชาติ 2. They stated that there will be two first ordinances that พรรคประชาชน will accelerate as key agendas of the city and the สภากทม. council: 1. Safe construction site regulations requiring all construction sites in กรุงเทพฯ to install CCTV cameras, disclose insurance policies, and strictly enforce safety measures to reduce accidents at construction sites, or if incidents occur, citizens will receive full protection and compensation from insurance.
นายวิโรจน์ continued: 2. Building control ordinances to ensure that all old buildings in กรุงเทพฯ have inspection standards, unlocking buildings that pass safety standards for public benefit of กรุงเทพฯ residents, such as creating affordable food courts, etc., including large buildings that may need ordinances to allocate space for bus or public vehicle parking to alleviate traffic problems in department stores or large buildings.
นายวิโรจน์ added: In addition to these two ordinances, there will also be a regulation we will add: the council meeting regulation, which is a very suitable agenda to drive the สภากทม. to be transparent. Every meeting, when any resolution is made, the citizens of กรุงเทพฯ should be informed. Everything must be publicly disclosed: what projects are happening, how much budget is used, how it is spent. He thought that all three matters are important.
นายวิโรจน์ continued: Meanwhile, there will be two special committees we will set up immediately: 1. The special committee to study solutions for the referral of gold card holders in the กรุงเทพมหานคร area. Many people are registered at clinics, and when they need treatment from a specialist or need more complex medical diagnosis, there is a problem with referral to secondary or tertiary hospitals. This is a problem in every district. We are very determined to find ways together with the central government to solve this problem. And กทม. needs to allocate budget to subsidize and solve immediate problems. We will then present the solutions to the Governor of กทม. for acknowledgment and push for concrete solutions.
- The special committee to study solutions for waste problems in กรุงเทพมหานคร, especially in ประเวศ district, including waste separation and landfill. We should have a more effective long-term waste management approach in กรุงเทพมหานคร. Additionally, regarding the annual expenditure budget of สภากทม. for the year 2570, the public wants to see transparent consideration. We intend to use AI to screen and inspect all projects in the 2570 budget to serve as eyes and ears for the Governor, and also open to public participation. This is the city agenda for the first six months.
“Therefore, to drive the city agenda quickly, พรรคประชาชน believes that we need a Chairman of สภากทม. who understands the city agenda and is committed to making the council transparent and more efficient. The person we unanimously agree to support as Chairman of สภากทม. is น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ เก่งรุ่งเรืองชัย, prospective ส.ก. for บางซื่อ district,” นายวิโรจน์ said.
น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ said: What I, as the candidate for Chairman of สภากทม. from พรรคประชาชน, propose is to put the work agenda at the forefront. What we have always pushed is a transparent council where everyone knows who does what, and making this council the most efficient in its work. For the transparent council, first we propose automatic disclosure of the voting results of all ส.ก. members. We will amend the regulation from the current practice where voting results are not disclosed, requiring a request to the Chairman for disclosure. In the past, there has been much ambiguity about why certain projects were requested and others were not. So we will return normality to สภากทม. by automatically disclosing the voting results of all members every time, as has been done in the national parliament.
น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ continued: The next agenda we have always pushed is live streaming the meetings of the special committee on the annual expenditure budget of กรุงเทพมหานคร, which we have fought for over a long period in the past. This time, we will amend the regulation to include live streaming of all standing and special committees of สภากรุงเทพมหานคร automatically. However, if any agenda involves company names that may be risky or related to security, the live broadcast can be paused.
น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ added: Next is the efficiency of ส.ก. work. We will disclose the attendance of ส.ก. members in standing and special committee meetings, how often each member attends. Another very important point is that we will amend the ordinance so that documents sent by the executive to สภากทม. for the annual expenditure budget review must include a machine-readable format for efficient consideration.
น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ also said: Moreover, we will push for the establishment of an academic and budget office of สภากทม. to support the budget work of ส.ก. by analyzing the budget in advance to see how much each item differs from the market price, what other projects the proposing company has offered, going back several years, and also support data for drafting ordinances for ส.ก. Because in the past, working with the legal department alone was insufficient.
น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ continued: Finally, what we think is very important and will push to happen is the establishment of a special committee to review monopoly contracts. We will set up this committee to review long-term contracts of กรุงเทพมหานคร with a value exceeding 100 million baht made with private entities. We will focus on contracts related to waste plants, concession contracts of กรุงเทพมหานคร, and long-term IT procurement that are at risk of corruption.
“Finally, as the candidate for Chairman of สภากรุงเทพมหานคร from พรรคประชาชน, we intend to push these agendas successfully. We hope that many fellow members in สภากรุงเทพมหานคร will agree with this agenda, so we invite fellow members to join us. What we have pushed for four years is to make this council transparent, accessible to the public, and efficient in its work. We ask for the encouragement of the people,” น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ said.
Asked if there are allies to support them, นายวิโรจน์ said: Currently, there are at least 4 people who agree and have discussed with us. We understand that we can set the work agenda together. So we must thank those 4 prospective ส.ก. members. At least now we can count 22+4. However, there are still many prospective ส.ก. members we are discussing with, but we confirm that the discussions are based on the city agenda and are constructive.
Asked about the case of นายสุรจิตต์ พงษ์สิงห์วิทยา, prospective ส.ก. for ลาดกระบัง, who announced readiness to support น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์, นายวิโรจน์ said: I think it's better to let him announce it himself. The announcement must be made by the ส.ก. member himself. But initially, many thanks to นายสุรจิตต์.
Asked whether there has been contact between พรรคประชาชน and พรรคประชาธิปัตย์, นายวิโรจน์ said: There has been ongoing discussion because the work of สภากทม. requires cooperation. Actually, we need 50 votes to push for solving the gold card problem that affects every district. Alone, 22, 25, or 27 votes have no power. But I believe that when ส.ก. members sit and talk, they will talk about this issue. So I want this to be a shared city agenda. If we get 50 people, there will be no problem.
Asked if น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ becomes Chairman of สภากทม., how will projects and operations be smoother and better for the people of กรุงเทพฯ? น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ said: I think that having 22 ส.ก. friends will certainly make work easier. But in normal city agendas, there can be differing opinions on many matters. Ultimately, we must put the people first.
Asked if it is possible for ส.ก. members to unite to block พรรคประชาชน, น.ส.ภัทราภรณ์ said: It is possible if we look back at the past work of สภากทม., it is normal. I can only hope that after we proposed our city agenda, the remaining 28 votes or however many, if they have their own agenda, should also propose it. However, we hope to get more than half of the ส.ก. seats to push our agenda more easily. But even with 22 seats, I still consider it a success. Looking at the big picture, the ส.ก. members of พรรคประชาชน are mostly new faces. If we look deeper, other groups or parties have no new faces at all. So I think this is a very exciting success for the local arena of พรรคประชาชน this time.
