Former Yingluck underling tells court rice scheme properly implemented
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A former deputy agriculture minister told a Supreme Court hearing Friday that the Yingluck Shinawatra government had strict measures to test the quality of rice under the rice-pledging scheme.
Warathep Ratanakorn, who served as deputy agriculture minister and Prime Minister’s Office minister in the Yingluck administration, also said that rice farmers had to be registered in order to take part in the scheme.
He was acting as a defence witness in yesterday’s hearing of the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division on Political Office Holders in a case against Yingluck.
The former prime minister, whose government was ousted from power in the May 2014 coup, has been indicted by the Attorney General’s Office for alleged negligence regarding massive irregularities stemming from the scheme. The damages to the state have been estimated at over Bt500 billion.
The court asked Warathep if the Yingluck government had measures to prevent rice from outside the country being used in the project. He said the participating farmers had to be registered and residents in their communities had to guarantee the farmers grew rice.
He added that authorities relied on aerial images to determine whether new rice paddies were grown on plantations.
