PM Paetongtarn’s Cabinet will have both new and old faces: Prommin

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s Cabinet will have both new and old faces, PM’s Secretary-General Prommit Lertsuridej said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters after the caretaker Cabinet reappointed him to the post, Prommin said some coalition partners, including the Palang Pracharath Party, have not yet submitted the names of their ministerial candidates to the Cabinet Secretariat for scrutiny.

Prommin said once he receives the list of Cabinet members as per partners’ quotas, he will coordinate with the Cabinet Secretariat on checking their background.

“The new Cabinet will have both old and new faces. The Cabinet Secretariat has coordinated with me about some names, so it can start checking their qualifications,” he said.

“Some partners have sent their lists, but they cannot be revealed yet because some names are not definite.”

He added that members of the previous Cabinet will also undergo scrutiny if they are proposed in the new list.

“Normally, profiles are checked closely, but after the Constitutional Court’s verdict, we have to go further back into each candidate’s past,” he said.

The court last week removed former PM Srettha Thavisin from office for appointing ex-jailbird Pichit Chuenban as a minister.

Therefore, his successor Paetongtarn wants to avoid repeating the mistake and has vowed to closely check the background of every member of her Cabinet.

Prommin added that the Cabinet Secretariat will perform its duty of checking qualifications and will seek opinions from the Council of State when it has questions about the qualifications of some nominees.

Meanwhile, a Government House source said it will take two or three weeks to check the qualifications of all nominees if the Cabinet Secretariat needs to consult the Council of State first.

Normally, it only takes about a week for the check to be done, the source said.