Govt to reclaim its House

Workmen are busy repairing the damage from a 92-day protest as officials will re-occupy Government House on Dec 22.

Cleaners, gardeners, builders, painters, and inspectors continued the task of restoring the seat of national government on Tuesday.

A team including officials from the Scientific Crime Detection Division on Tuesday investigated damage at the site after Government House was occupied by the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) for over three months.

Authorities say Government House will properly present the face of the nation to the public and to the world, even as politicians moved towards a vote on the next prime minister to set up office at Government House.

But there are a lot of loose ends to pick up.

Valuables inside the Office of the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister were scattered and missing, according to a senior administrative official after checking the building in the Government House compound.

But civil servants are expected to be able to resume their normal work and duties within two weeks, with a target date of Dec 22.

An inspector of the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Vachira Pengphol, told reporters that furniture, desks and senior officials' offices were broken into and ransacked.

One senior official, Yiemsak Kum-in, whose home was being renovated in August, had moved valuable personal possessions to his office for safekeeping, Mr Vachira said, but now they were missing. Some valuable items worth about 400,000 baht include Buddha amulets, a diamond ring and a gold bar.

Inside a main building in Government House, two giant firecrackers and a yellow scarf with the words "Restore of the Nation" were found in a drawer in the office of the Secretariat of the Prime Minister. Such scarves were worn by anti-government protesters of the PAD.

Custodial workers came to clean the buildings and clear away garbage and barriers left by the protesters. (TNA)