ML Panadda Diskul stirred up a hornet's nest when he suggested that some local administrations could not be trusted to spend taxpayers' money.
He told a story he heard about a provincial administrator flying first class on a purported study trip and drinking a 100,000-baht bottle of wine while his secretary sat on the aeroplane floor waiting to take instructions from him.
Needless to say, his remarks did not go down well with a number of provincial administrators who gathered to condemn the newly appointed Prime Minister's Office minister.
The spat led to ML Panadda offering an apology while stressing he did not mean to implicate all local administrations.
It is understandable why the local administrators felt the need to respond to ML Panadda's remark in such a strong manner.
Since the coup d'etat, local administrations have been under great pressure. For a start, one of the first acts of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) was to suspend all local elections.
Since the coup d'etat, local administrations have been under great pressure. For a start, one of the first acts of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) was to suspend all local elections.
There have even been suggestions the country do away with local administrations altogether and revert back to what existed before when the Interior Ministry exerted complete control over local affairs.
Then the NCPO halved the local bodies' annual 60-billion-baht budget. Although it did not say as much, the NCPO's action was interpreted as an attempt to limit the amount of money local politicians could abuse. The regime took the step purportedly in support of its anti-corruption pledge.
No one will argue that corruption exists in local administrations, some more widespread than others. Indeed, derisive comments have been made ever since local administration organisations at provincial and tambon levels were created as the country's decentralisation policy took effect more than a decade ago.
Critics suggested that decentralisation merely meant transferring corruption from the central to the local level
Unfortunately, events and circumstances have proved the critics right. To this day, there have been numerous instances of questionable spending and abuse of power.
But not all things have been negative.
During the same period, local services have generally improved. Local people’s needs are better and more speedily served as local politicians have proved to be more responsive than the bureaucrats of old.
And this positive development has had a domino effect on local officials attached to central government agencies, such as governors and district officers. Closer to the people, they feel compelled to be more responsive to their demands.
Are the positive developments sufficiently satisfying to leave the local bodies well enough alone? Of course not. Abuse of power and the taxpayers' money remains widespread and must be contained and, if at all possible, eliminated.
But the answer is not to deprive the citizens of their democratic rights, including the right to choose their own representatives to run their own affairs.
And lest we forget, one of the main motivations for decentralisation was the widespread corruption in the central government in the first place.
Can anybody say with confidence that corruption in the central government is a thing of the past now the military has complete control?
With the military junta exerting absolute power over the machinery of state, who will now monitor the junta's and its members' spending of the national budget?
Less democracy certainly does not lead to less corruption. More likely, the opposite is true: Less democracy leads to more corruption.
It can be further argued that more democracy leads to less corruption.
Eliminating political entities chosen by the people is not an effective way to root out local-level corruption; that would be a huge step backward. What we really need is more-not less-public participation.
We need to empower citizens to monitor the performance of local agencies and their officials to ensure efficiency and transparency.
There already exist legally sanctioned, citizen-driven entities that serve to boost citizens' participation in the affairs of the state. These are called community organisation councils (COCs).
Their members consist of local leaders, village representatives and members of civic groups.
Sanctioned by the Community Organisation Council Act of 2008, they represent the voices of the grassroots in proposing their own vision for local development in partnership with local administrations.
Admittedly the COCs have limited leverage, serving only more or less in an advisory role. As a whole, however, they are possibly the only legal entities engaged in direct democracy in that citizens have a direct say in proposing development suitable for their communities.
But much more can be done to further strengthen citizens' participation in local governance.
Several academics and social advocates have been experimenting with various tools to promote government transparency and strengthen local citizens' participation.
One is a "community scorecard", which allows citizens to assess services received from government agencies with the aim of ensuring those services satisfy local people's needs.
Another tool attempts to increase citizens' literacy in the process of setting public budgets with an aim to encourage them to monitor government expenditure.
Such tools are being developed to encourage citizens to participate with local government agencies in improving services. With increased citizens' involvement, it is expected transparency in government and democratisation in general will increase.
The main shortcoming of these projects is that full cooperation from officials in charge is required to open their operation and budgeting process to public scrutiny.
If the NCPO is genuine in its pledge to reform the democratic system, it would do well to encourage more public participation at all levels of government instead of re-centralising powers into the hands of bureaucrats and a few chosen people, as it seems to be doing now.