Villagers of Ban Donjan Moo 4 filed a complaint with the Damrongdhamma Office that the discharge order of their village headman had not been enforced more than three years after the initial discharge.
A total of 30 villagers filed their letter at Chiang Mai City Hall on February 21, 2017 asking that the government process the discharge order after the appeal by Poranee Chaiwapin, village headman of Moo 4 was rejected.
Led by Prapaporn Chaichanachompu, Chairman of Village Fund of Ban Donjan Pattana they passed their protest letter to Anchalee Uthai, Chief of the Administration and Justice Enhancement Group as the Deputy Governor’s representative.
Prapaporn said that they had presented the complaint letter because it had already been determined that she did not behave appropriately as village headman. Villagers allege that as village headman she did not take into consideration villagers opinions in regards to an SML project and the construction of sewers. The complaint stated that with the village headman in place it had caused much dissent in the village and they allege that she had not coordinated with the government organizations and local administrations in promoting the community, they allege that she not helped village youth and had collected parking fees from vendors.
Prapaporn then referred to an order issued by Muang, Chiang Mai Chief District Officer no. Cho Mor 0118/5266 dated 27 August 2014 regarding the District’s summary of inspection result that the village headman had behavior neglecting the role or is not appropriate with the position according to Section 14(7) of the Local Government Act, BE 2457 (1914). As a result, the resolution was that Chiang Mai Governor would consider discharging the village headman.
However, the order was never issued and even though the villagers have constantly asked to have the village headman removed, she stated that nothing had been done.
On January 15, 2017 under Ministry of Interior regulations an assessment of duty operations of village headmen was held. However, the villagers state that the village headman didn’t publicize to the villagers but she gathered her people and cousins to assess her duty operations. The villagers stated that this showed dishonesty and non-transparency. After hearing of this they complained to the Village’s Community Committees to have a meeting and filed a complaint letter with the Muang, Chiang Mai District Chief Officer to ask for a re-assessment of the village headman’s duty operations. After checking, the District Chief Officer did order a re-assessment of the village headman on January 26, 2017. This assessment saw 169 villagers of Ban Donjan Pattana Community participate and the village headman didn’t pass the assessment. Consequently, Pornranee Chaiwapin, Village Headman of Moo 4 was discharged according Section 14(11) of the Local Government Act, BE 2457 (1914)
However, villagers found out that the village headman had appealed the assessment and asked the province to cancel the appeal, discharge the headman and allow the villagers to elect a new village headman.
