The Cabinet has approved the Ministry of Defence’s retirement project.

Government House, The Cabinet has approved the Ministry of Defence's early retirement project for fiscal years 2025-2027. Ms. Kanika Unjit, Deputy Government Spokesperson, revealed that the Cabinet meeting (July 9, 2024) resolved to approve the early retirement project of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) for fiscal years 2025-2027, whereby those who resign will receive benefits as specified in the project, including having relevant government agencies support the implementation of the project as proposed by the MoD. The Ministry of Defence will start implementing the project in July 2024 and will have to follow the relevant procedures to meet the retirement age by October 2024. The deputy government spokesman said that the Ministry of Defence has a plan to reduce the number of military generals in the positions of special experts, experts and operational officers by 50 percent from fiscal years 2008-2028 and later has a plan to reform the management of the Ministry of Defence personnel, setting a target to r educe the number of personnel by 5 percent of the total number of personnel from fiscal years 2020-2027. Therefore, the Ministry of Defence has prepared guidelines for the implementation of the Ministry of Defence's early retirement project by specifying specific target groups, which is a tool that can solve the Ministry of Defence's personnel problems directly. It has a period of 3 years and the Ministry of Defence has estimated that there will be approximately 732 participants in the project (244 per year) in total over the 3 years, which can save the budget of approximately 4,479,84 million baht. The details are summarized as follows: Principle - Encourage military officers who hold positions of special expertise, seniority, and operational officers and units to voluntarily resign from the service before retirement age in order to reduce the congestion of personnel in the high-ranking group. objective 1.) To adjust the size of the Ministry of Defence's personnel to be more appropriate. 2.) To reduce th e congestion of those holding positions of special experts, experts, and operational and unit officers, who are personnel in the high-ranking group. 3.) To save the government's personnel budget in the long term. Target - Military officers at the rank of Colonel, Commander and Group Captain and above who hold positions of special experts, experts and operational officers and are stationed at units who are 50 years old and above and have 25 years or more of service time, excluding doubled service time, counted up to the day before leaving government service under the project and have 2 years or more of service time remaining from the date of leaving government service under the project. Project Implementation/Conditions 1. Allocate the number of project participants by rank and position to the subordinate units of the Ministry of Defence, the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters and the armed forces. Appoint a committee to consider the qualifications of project applicants and select personnel to participa te in the project according to the specified criteria. In the case of a large number of applicants, the following factors will be considered in order: position and age. The rates of the positions of special experts, experts, and operational and unit officers that are vacant from participating in the project shall not be used for the replacement of personnel in the first rate positions in all cases. The person to be replaced must have no more than 1 year of service remaining or will retire in that fiscal year only so that the Ministry of Defense can proceed with closing the said rate. The operational and unit officer positions are not allowed to be replaced in any case. 7. They are prohibited from being re-instated into permanent government service and from making a contract to re-employ as a government employee. Benefits include benefits in the form of a lump sum of 7-10 times the final month's salary including position allowance (if any), excluding other special money or compensation, according to the following calculation formula: Lump sum = [5 + remaining service years (years)] x final month's salary including position allowance (if any), but not exceeding 10 times the final month's salary including position allowance (if any). Budget source - Use the personnel budget of the Ministry of Defence to operate within the budget framework allocated by the Ministry of Defence in the amount of 600 million baht without requesting additional central budget. The project is divided into 3 years from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2027 in the amount of 200 million baht/year. Reporting of performance results - Units directly under the Ministry of Defense, the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters and the armed forces report project performance results, including any problems, to the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defense within 30 days after the date on which military officers are ordered to leave government service each year, in order to compile and summarize the results to present to the Minister of Defens e. Source: Thai News Agency