Officials ousted for fraud over govt rice deals

The decision to remove the Foreign Trade Department officials followed a committee ruling by the ministry’s Office of the Civil Service Commission, and came after a National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) investigation.
A source from the ministry said the two civil servants had to be dismissed after the NACC found they had committed fraud.
The officials can, however, appeal the committee’s decision through the Merit System Protection Commission within 30 days.
It is the first time something like this has happened at the ministry.
The two officials were involved in four alleged “government-to-government” rice deals led by former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and ex-commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom.
Other politicians and individuals, including a retired civil servant and the two aforementioned officials were also reported to have been involved.
The NACC filed a petition alleging corruption in the deals and has called on those involved to compensate the country over the huge financial loss.
There has also been a development in a separate case centred on high-level officials at state-owned Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) who were corrupted over the packed-rice scheme, with two officials provisionally discharged from the government service pending the result of an inquiry.
PWO chairman Jintana Chaiyawonnagal said the organisation had set up a committee to investigate the matter and would estimate the losses from the corruption and call on the ex-executives to pay compensation.
The scrapped rice-pledging scheme aimed to support poor farmers and produce cheap rice for sale to the public.
However, the PWO also found that a large quantity of rice disappeared from its stocks, while |the quality of much rice also |suffered.