Govt officials charged in rice deals told to leave

Permanent Secretary Chutima Bunyapraphasara, said that the ministry would need to wait for clear documents from the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) before deciding how it would punish the two government officials.
“This is the first time officials from this ministry are [allegedly] involved in a fraudulent case. The ministry will need to wait for clear documents from the NACC so we can make a decision on how to punish them,” Chutima explained.

Two government officials and one former official of the ministry’s Foreign Trade Department were found to have played a role in four government-to-government schemes.
Chutima said once the ministry has the document from the NACC, action will be taken within 30 days. She said the maximum penalty for this could be dishonourable discharge.
As for the retired official, he could face criminal and civil charges.
According to the NACC, individuals and companies found involved in this case will also face further investigation by the Customs and Revenue Departments.
The fraudulent deals were created to absorb the government’s huge stockpiles of rice under the pledging scheme. In June 2011, former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom announced that the ministry had struck government-to-government deals for 7.23 million tonnes of rice.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has estimated that losses caused by the rice-pledging scheme could reach Bt682 billion as of the end of 2014.
Rungson Sriworasat, permanent secretary at the Finance Ministry, said yesterday that the post-auditing committee for the scheme would speed up its task of checking the state’s rice inventories.
A report on the losses caused by the scheme will be reported to PM Prayut Chan-o-cha by February 15.
In addition, Boonsong said he was being made a prey in the political game, and that the actual aim was to impeach former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
He added that the NACC should not put the entire blame for the Bt600 billion losses on Yingluck’s government, as it did earn some money from selling the rice. He pointed out that the four contracts to sell the rice were worth Bt70.54 billion and that the ministry had already given the money earned from the rice sale to the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.