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[nicky1982]

British Honorary Consul in Pattaya resigns


In what is seen as a major surprise, the British Honorary Consul for Pattaya, Mr Howard Miller, has tendered his resignation from the position, effective immediately. The resignation has been accepted by the British Ambassador. Mr Miller had served as Honorary Consul for the past 15 months.



Howard Miller with HE Asif Ahmad, British Ambassador to Thailand

In recent times the British Consulate in Pattaya has become increasingly busy, to such an extent the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) decided to upgrade the office to a Full Consulate. Two full-time positions became available (Vice Consul and Consulate Officer). These new positions required formal applications to be taken from within the FCO, and outside.

Mr Miller stated he was not in a position to accept a full-time appointment due to his current business activities in Pattaya, which include Pattaya One TV News, Pattaya 105FM radio station, and the new inpattayanow website.

Howard stated the appointment of a new full-time team for Pattaya left, "No room for an Honorary Consul position which was due to be phased out by the end of the year. I was asked to remain until next April while the new team settle into their new roles, but this would have meant I would have become an effectively non-active Honorary Consul, a role which I cannot accept after working so hard on the front-line of consular operations in Pattaya, especially during the last few months."

Howard continued, "It was an honour to work with the British Embassy and Foreign & Commonwealth Office over the last 15 months. It has also been fascinating seeing how the FCO operates in Thailand and the high standard of consular services they offer to British Nationals."

With Mr Miller's sudden departure, the Consulate in Jomtien, next to the Immigration Office, will only be operational on Thursday's between 09:30am and 12:30pm. For urgent notarial requests Pattaya residents will have to consult with the British Embassy in Bangkok who can be contacted by telephone on 02 305 833


Source http://inpattayanow....attaya-resigns/

[londoedan]

I don't believe it was a good idea to appoint such a prominent local businessman to this position in the first place.

Plus the fact that he is leaving immediately, without serving any notice, also implies, to me at least, he wasn't right for the role, i.e. what happened to working your notice period ?

Good luck to the next guy.

Simon

[timekeeper]

londoedan, on 2011-10-24 17:43:17, said:

I don't believe it was a good idea to appoint such a prominent local businessman to this position in the first place.

Plus the fact that he is leaving immediately, without serving any notice, also implies, to me at least, he wasn't right for the role, i.e. what happened to working your notice period ?

Good luck to the next guy.

Simon

Simon
he was right for the role for 15 months regardless of his position as a prominent local businessman
his business interests had not changed during his term so one can assume it was acceptable to the British Government during his stewardship
maybe things changed in the working conditions
maybe there were some characteristics of the new position that did not suit him
maybe he felt duty bound to resign now rather than later

i found him to be a Honorable man, i expect he had his reasons and as it was a voluntary position, not a job, why would you think he had to ''work'' any notice

if the ''next guy '' does not have a working knowledge of how things work in Pattaya then it could be an unmitigated disaster for the British community here
last thing we need is some stiff Oxford graduate with a diplomat bag and a high opinion of himself, stumbling around immigration trying to sort out right from wrong

people like Howard Miller and Barry Kenyon are in a small minority who can cope with this kind of work
dealing with the ''Thai face'' every day is a refined skill that should not be underestimated............

[Rimmer]

This has already been posted in the pinned topics and in the news clipping, I don't think we need it posting a third time.
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