Claims of substandard rice distorted: ex-deputy minister

There appeared to be irregularities in the report released on Friday by the committee chaired by ML Panadda Diskul, permanent secretary of the PM’s Office, he said, such as the finding that more than 14 million tonnes of rice were of “substandard” quality and only two million tonnes of “standard” quality.

That was unbelievable and did not reflect reality, Yanyong said.

Not all warehouses in the country were checked, only some on a random basis, he said. Samples from bales deep inside the stacks of rice were taken from only one in every seven storage sites. 

The other six were only of rice on the perimeter. Each granary may have at least 20,000 sacks of rice, he said.

The timing of the release of the results of the checks on Friday was suspicious, as if there might have been a political motive since the National Legislative Assembly will debate an impeachment motion against former PM Yingluck Shinawatra soon and the Attorney-General’s Office was about to decide whether to indict Yingluck, he said.

“The Panadda panel’s allegation that substandard quality rice reached 14 million tonnes was manipulative and misleading to make the public believe that the scheme caused a massive loss because the impeachment against Yingluck will commence early next year,’’ he said. 

The Panadda report also contradicted the results of checks by the Office of Commodity Standards, the Foreign Trade Department and a committee appointed by the Yingluck government to monitor the rice-pledging operation, he said.

These panels regularly checked the quality and quantity of rice in the scheme and never reported such a huge volume of substandard rice, he said. The report could not be used against Yingluck because her government did not have to take responsibility for the damage as contracts signed by the state and granary owners made the owners accountable for any damage from rotting rice and stock losses, he said.

The contracts clearly stated that the owners of the granaries and surveyors who assessed the quality of rice before storage must be held responsible for damage incurred to the rice, he said. 

Yingluck also appointed several teams to check stocks such as the Foreign Trade Department team, a committee checking the rice-pledging operation and the special police team appointed by ex-deputy PM Chalerm Yoobamrung. 

“She would definitely not get impeached for dereliction of duty that led to grave damage to the state, as accused,” he claimed.