The government's 2006-2007 budget is around Bt1.56 trillion, compared with Bt1.36 trillion in the previous fiscal year. Government agencies have never had a good reputation when it comes to spending the budget, particularly the investment portion of it, on schedule. In the 2005-2006 fiscal year, only 75 per cent of the budget was disbursed due to cumbersome bureaucratic procedures.

As a result of the military coup on September 19 last year, budget spending for this fiscal year has been delayed by around three months. To make matters even more critical, the size of the budget is even larger.

Now, not only do government agencies have less time - only about eight months - to push the money into the economic society, but they also have a larger budget to spend. The Finance Ministry can only hope that if it is able to disburse only 73 per cent of the 2006-2007 budget, the results won't be too negative.

The investment portion of the budget is critical, as it must be put to use as quickly as possible in order to kick-start investment, an important engine of growth. Finance Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula has trumpeted the five lines to be added to Bangkok's mass transit system as one of the highlight's of this year's fiscal spending. Even with the baht appreciation, exports are still doing well.

So can government agencies and bureaucrats push out investment budget spending in time to give the economy a shot in the arm? General Saprang Kalayanamitra, the assistant Army commander, recently complained that civil servants are holding back the country's progress by staying in "neutral gear". He was implying that civil servants would rather play it safe by staying idle rather than helping the interim government get the country moving again. He warned them to keep moving rather than back-pedalling.

In the aftermath of the coup, nobody is certain about the country's political direction. Civil servants are waiting to see which way the political winds blow. Since the Council for National Security and the Surayud Chulanont government have announced that they would only be in office for about a year before handing power back to a democratically-elected government, they think that it would be wise to proceed with caution.

Last week, the Surayud government did discuss this problem with top bureaucrats who still, in effect, run the country as they are responsible for the implementation of government policy. It was reported that the bureaucrats told the prime minister that they had not been staying in neutral gear at all. They said that they would like to get things done, but the absence of sufficient budget was stopping them. The military coup disrupted the budget process and it took time before the new National Legislative Assembly was set up and able to vote on the new budget.

However, we have heard that in some ministries bureaucrats have indeed been staying in neutral gear. Instead of performing the duties entrusted to them, they have avoided their responsibilities by travelling upcountry or finding other excuses so that they don't have to respond to government policy. They are afraid that if they do something wrong, the next government might go after them.

Well, this is Thai politics. We can only hope that both the interim government and the civil service work as a team to get things done. Thailand has been badly damaged by political instability and it is now time to move on. There are several problems to tackle, but civil servants must do their jobs first if we expect economic recovery and renewed confidence from investors and consumers.