Change is in the air at the Legal Execution Department, the state agency responsible for confiscating assets in bankruptcy cases.
The agent of that change is Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol, director-general of the LED who has brought a state agency usually known for the old-fashioned work of seizing assets kicking and screaming into the digital age.
The LED was recently praised by the Office of the Civil Service Commission and recommended as a model for other agencies to follow.
"Achievements in various tasks assigned by the Justice Ministry did not come from me alone, but teamwork and a willingness from everyone to listen to the opinions of their colleagues," Ms Ruenvadee told the Bangkok Post in an exclusive interview.
InquiryLines, published bi-weekly on Mondays is a Bangkok Post column to present in-depth details of a range of issues from politics and social interest to eye-catching everyday lives.
"We are also creating synergy between the state and private sectors in a systematic manner to ensure we can reap mutual benefits from innovation," she said.
Ms Ruenvadee was transferred from the Department of Probation (DOP) to serve as the director-general of the LED under an order issued by the National Council for Peace and Order on July 16, 2014.
Her four-year term actually finished in July this year, but the government insisted on keeping her there for another year.
The government has good reasons to do so, as the LED has become a trailblazer for showing how it's possible to modernise an archaic, bureaucratic behemoth.
For example, next month, the LED will become be the first government agency to go completely paperless, when all documents will have finished being scanned into a searchable archive.
This is just one step the agency is taking towards meeting the government's "Thailand 4.0" aspiration which is designed to see the country move to the forefront of the information revolution.
The agency has managed to put all financial data of those ordered to repay debts by courts countrywide into the department's database system.
This was completed in September last year.
Information related to civil and bankruptcy cases, meanwhile, will be fully incorporated in the nationwide system early next year, she noted.
The database will also be accessible by other state agencies, such as the Finance Ministry and the Government Housing Bank, which will be able to quickly peruse credit and financial records.
The LED has imported information relating to 200,000 asset-seizure cases into the system, so far reducing its paper usage by an estimated seven million sheets a year.
Ms Ruenvadee said the LED is currently studying how the agency can seize digital assets after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ushered a law that regards the virtual currencies, which are increasingly popular among criminals, as an asset.
She said the LED will conduct its first public hearing into the issue next month.
To prepare officials for the digital era, she sent more than 40 LED officers, ranging from superiors to operational staff, to attend enterprise architecture training created to enhance efficiency in the workplace.
According to Ms Ruenvadee, before organisational development can be pursued effectively, it is an important first step to get staff up to speed.
Another key achievement of the agency lies in its new strategies in auctioning off confiscated assets.
In the old days, the valuables were auctioned during office hours and those interested in the items had to take a leave of absence from work to visit the LED or provincial offices of the agency.
Ms Ruenvadee moved the auction events to Saturdays as well as allowing interested parties to bid online.
These moves have attracted a much younger, more affluent, crowd of bidders to the events, where houses, condominiums and other valuable items are often sold at below-market prices.
"The changes of auction time may have frustrated some officers at the beginning, but the approach has been proved successful," she told Bangkok Post.
Some confiscated properties have been auctioned off for 30-40% more than their appraisal prices, according to the director general.
More than 30% of the bankruptcy-related assets that had remained unsold for more than a decade have also been auctioned off on Ms Ruenvadee's watch.
For the 2018 fiscal year so far, 130.6 billion baht worth of assets has been sold by the department.
She has also improved debt repayment processes, making it easier for companies that had been ordered by court to collect money from debtors to pay the LED.
One company told her that the new procedures she has implemented had saved them 600,000 baht a year through reductions in red tape and bureaucratic processes alone.
"This kind of one-stop service was designed to help the private sector save time and money.
"So far the system has proved very successful and already another 10 companies are interested in taking part in the programme," said Ms Ruenvadee.
Ms Ruenvadee moved from the SEC to the Justice Ministry's legal affairs bureau when Somchai Wongsawat, who was the permanent secretary for justice between 1999 and 2006, was prime minister.
Ms Ruenvadee rose through the ranks at the ministry as deputy director of the Office of Justice Affairs, inspector-general and also director-general of the DOP.
She quickly acquired a reputation for reforming and modernising the offices she was put in charge of.
During a stint at the DOP in 2015, she suggested renting electronic tags to monitor suspects or defendants in the run-up to trials, so they would not have to be detained.
Such devices could also be used for prisoners who are granted parole so they would not enter areas where they could cause trouble.
The tracking devices, however, were not used much at the beginning so the Budget Bureau later cut the budget for their rental.
"However, the Court of Justice has recently become interested in using the tracking devices and the DOP will begin employing the equipment again next year," said Ms Ruenvadee with a smile.
