Rice-pledging policy panel to finalise scheme losses
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Figure to be made clear after data from Finance Ministry checked
The government is likely to accept the figures released by the Finance Ministry’s Post-Audit Committee on losses accumulated by the rice-pledging project, but the Commerce Ministry says the figures must be verified by the National Rice Policy Committee (NRPC) before finalisation.
Wiboonlasana Ruamraksa, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, said the loss figures calculated by the Post-Audit Committee would be considered by the NRPC.
“The Post-Audit Committee is the only agency that is directly responsible for the auditing process of every government project. Whatever it has found out it should be reliable,” said Wiboonlasana, who acts as the NRPC’s secretary-general.
The NRPC will tomorrow sum up its own figures on the rice-pledging programme and check the accuracy of the Post-Audit Committee’s figures, Deputy Commerce Minister Natthawut Saikua said.
“The [loss] figure should come out clearly after the NRPC considers it. The committee is directly responsible for the pledging programme’s budget. Its figures should be acceptable,” he said, adding that these would be announced to the public.
He said PM’s Office Minister Varathep Ratanakorn, who was recently assigned to collect information related to the rice-pledging scheme from all government agencies, will next Tuesday report his figures to the Cabinet.
Natthawut said the government should not need to wait two or three years to release all the rice from its stockpiles so that it can find out the total losses racked up by the controversial pledging programme.
Asked about the Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s demand for an investigation of the government’s income from rice sales, Natthawut said the relevant agencies should submit their documents to the commission to demonstrate transparency.
Meanwhile, Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom denied that the government had documentation stating that the pledging would create a loss of up to Bt230 billion as former deputy prime minister Korbsak Sabhavasu has said.
“Thailand does not have such a large budget. It is impossible that the government would proceed with the pledging if it estimated ending up with such huge losses,” he said.
