Thai Enquirer
Budget panel members call for abolition of ISOC, Prayut-era reform office
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Members of a parliamentary budget committee on Tuesday questioned the continued existence and spending of government agencies they said had overlapping functions and failed to deliver clear results.
Key facts
- During scrutiny of the 2027 budget, former Prachachat Party leader and prime ministerial adviser Wan Muhamad Noor Matha backed calls to abolish the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), citing the March 20 attack on Prachachat MP
- It was renamed ISOC in 1974 and operates today under the 2008 Internal Security Act.
- Amporn, a party-list MP and deputy chair of the House committee scrutinising the fiscal 2027 budget bill, said ISOC was responsible for monitoring, assessing and issuing warnings on domestic security threats but had yet to demonstrate
- Committee members also questioned ISOC’s vehicle rental costs and more than 2.2 billion baht in unspent funds that may not be disbursed by the end of fiscal 2026.
- National Security Council Secretary-General Chatchai Bangchuad separately said the government’s target of ending violence in the southern border region by 2027 would be difficult to achieve as unrest continued
- The comments came after former Prachachat Party leader and prime ministerial adviser Wan Muhamad Noor Matha backed calls to abolish ISOC during scrutiny of the 2027 budget, questioning its role, spending and links to the March 20 attack on
Summary
During scrutiny of the 2027 budget, former Prachachat Party leader and prime ministerial adviser Wan Muhamad Noor Matha backed calls to abolish the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), citing the March 20 attack on Prachachat MP Kamonsak Leewamoh in Narathiwat. He said ISOC could not distance itself from the case because the vehicle used by the attackers belonged to its Narathiwat office.
Kamonsak escaped unharmed, while two people travelling with him were seriously injured. Investigators later found that two of the three firearms used in the attack had previously been in service with the Royal Thai Marine Corps. Police have arrested several suspects, including a former Marine, but authorities have not publicly identified the mastermind.