1.1.3 Thailand’s Public Sector Reform through the Concept of NPM The movement of implementing the Master Plan of Public Sector Reform B.C. 2540-2545 (1997-2001) and the success of bureaucratic reforms in the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Australia, and the USA which represented the application of the New Public Administration Model (NPM) has become a significant catalyst for change in the Thai public sector (Bongkoch Sutad NaAyuthaya, 2010). Consequently, Thai public administration reform was pushed forward and made significant progress in the period that Taksin Shinnawatra was the Prime Minister of Thailand.
In order to achieve public sector reform, the State Administration Act (No.5)
B.E. 2545 (2002) and the Act on Reorganization of Ministries, Ministerial Bureaus
and Departments, B.E. 2545 (2002) have been promulgated as the framework of Thai bureaucratic reform. These two Acts led to the creation of twenty Ministries and Sub-Ministries. The Acts provided the adjustment of the authority of government agencies and also changed the administrative system by restructuring agencies with related tasks into a group so as to enable the objectives and direction of related agencies to jointly and efficiently work without unnecessary cost due to overlap. In addition, the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC) was established in B.E. 2545 (2002) as the main driver in the development of Good Governance and NPM in the Thai public sector.