Public Participation and Performance of Government Projects in Thailand

Abstract

Public participation is the inclusion of the public in the activities of any organization or project. The performance of government projects in Thailand has been slow. Some of the projects have taken a longer time than anticipated to be completed. In addition, some projects are not the priority of the citizens and they end up being of no value to the citizens. Thus, the study sought to examine the effect of public participation on the performance of government projects in Thailand. The study used a descriptive research design. The collection of the data was done using questionnaires. The study sampled randomly 1378 people in Bangkok. The analysis of the data was done using SPSS. The study findings showed public participation has a positive and significant effect on the performance of development projects in Thailand. Public participation is a basic condition in local democracy because it allows the citizen to take part and contribute to bringing more solutions to any type of problem. Most governments are called to change and give their citizens room in the decision-making processes, from the low levels of governance to the highest. The study concluded that public participation has led to the effective planning, execution, operation, and monitoring of projects. It is recommended that the project officers should encourage the participation of the community by motivating participants to offer their views on various projects. The project officers need to include locals in all relevant activities involving work sequencing, work organizing, financing and staffing. Public participation makes it possible to consider community issues. Public participation should be organized in a particular way to make sure that they contribute to the environmental, financial, and social sustainability concerns of the project.