Senate's committee backs Supa

The Senate committee on economics, commerce and industry has threatened to launch an impeachment motion against the government if Finance Ministry deputy permanent secretary Supa Piyajitti is transferred. 

The committee yesterday announced its decision to protect Supa against further “political harassment” after hearing her testimony about possible irregularities in the government’s rice-pledging scheme. 

Committee chairman Bunchai Chokwattana and spokesman Senator Wanchai Sonsiri issued a statement voicing disapproval of Finance Minister and Deputy PM Kittiratt Na-Ranong’s decision to order an investigation against Supa after she told the panel on July 2 that the scheme could suffer losses of Bt260 billion. This declaration apparently upset Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. 

The statement said Kittiratt’s moves could be seen as means to harass a permanent official who was carrying out her duty under the scope of the law and the Constitution. 

The move is also interfering with the panel’s work, as this investigation might discourage others from giving their testimony, the statement said. 

 

‘Support for honest workers’

“We would like to offer moral support to Supa to be steadfast on the right path,’’ Bunchai said.

Meanwhile, Nipon Puapong-sakorn and Ammar Siamwalla, distinguished scholars at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), circulated an article titled: “Who must show ‘receipts’ of the rice-pledging corruption?’’

The article quoted a message posted on Twitter by the prime minister asking Supa to submit information on graft so the premier could take legal action. 

The day after the Twitter message was posted, however, the Finance Ministry ordered the setting up of a fact-finding panel to investigate Supa for her testimony to the Senate committee.

“If the PM is sincere in preventing and suppressing corruption, then she should admire Supa for doing an honest job in protecting the country’s interests. The PM should have set up a panel to investigate the corruption instead,” the article read. 

It also urged the authorities to look into claims that 2.9 million tonnes of rice might be missing from the central warehouses, because just one inspection on June 28 can hardly prove whether this massive amount of rice is actually missing. 

The government must also investigate claims that some rice was stolen from the warehouses to be sold locally and that cheap rice was bought from neighbouring countries to replace it, it said. 

The article called on the Commerce Ministry to disclose whom it had sold the rice to and at what price, because it has been nearly two years since the grain was sold. The claim that the information is secret is no longer reasonable, it said.

The article went on to say that the government had all the information about the rice-pledging scheme and that it also issued “receipts”, hence it was wrong to order the Post-Audit Committee of the pledging scheme to show receipts.

The PM should, instead, have state agencies submit receipts on the sale of rice to the National-Anti Corruption Commission or an independent committee so they can look into corruption claims and report the results of the investigation to Parliament, it added.

In a related development, the government is considering a new pledging price to be introduced next month for the upcoming harvest season, to help protect poor farmers from the adverse impact of price reduction. Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach said the government would hold a meeting to discuss the scheme with farmers and relevant agencies tomorrow.