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This power was given to the ECT by article 11 of the ECT-Iaw. Depending on the size of the
provinces. each PEC has either five. seven. or nine members; altogether there are 434 PEC
members. Their recruitment was started at the beginning of April 1998. about four months
after the ECT was established. Applications for the positions were accepted from 26-30 June

1998. What is remarkable is that the recruitment was done with hardly any public relations.
Recruitment was not a secret affair. but no attempt was obvoiusly made to inform people in
the provinces that the ECT was looking to establish its provincial-level branches. Accordingly.
the m;.yor means left to make interested persons apply was mouth-to-mouth propaganda by
the small group of people who knew about it: civil servants in the provincial hall. etc. Small
wonder then that of the total number of PEC members. 66% are civil servants. either active or
retired. And. by the way. only 11 % are women.

The internal organization of the PEGs-both concerning the division of labor amongst
members and with regard to the office organization-mirrors that of the ECT. One conse-
quence of this is that individual members talk almost exclusively to their counterparts in the
ECT or to officials in that section. Of course. this is not conducive to creating something like
an esprit de corps. Also. since the ECT is dependent on the PECs. there should be personal
contacts in the form of ECT -members regularly visiting their counterparts in the provinces
and listening to their problems. complaints. and suggestions. The ECT-members have given

themselves the task of supervising the PECs in the five regions. but there seem to be great
differences in the way members perform this duty. Whereas PECs in one region have been
visited two or three times already. there has not yet been any visit of this kind to the PEC of
Chachoengsao where I have been doing my research from the very beginning of the ECT.

Just about three weeks ago. the ECT sent a letter to the PECs telling them that

their members ought to work full-time during official office hours. This. you might guess. is
due to the upcoming election to the Senate. Asking this of the commissioners should not be
that easy since. up to now. even their pay has not yet finally been decided upon. The ECT's
proposal of about 30.000 per month was reduced by the government to about 10.000. al-
though it is the legal right of the ECT to determine what their provincial commissioners are
to earn. Moreover. the PECs have been struggling to recruit and to keep staff. Continuity is
difficult to achieve when borrowed staff members suddenly have to return to their old work-
places in provincial halls. the police. or th district community development offices. There may

be three temporarily employed people. But if it was not for those few office workers hired as
part of the Miyazawa loans. many PECs may find it difficult to perform their most basic tasks.

And it seems that PECs have been relieved from some of their tasks already.
perhaps partly because both money and staff were insufficient to perform the tasks. For

example. two days ago. I received a phone call from the director of a secondary school in
Chonburi province. She told me that she got a letter from the municipal office asking her