PM's order to protect rice officials

Prayut issued an order in his capacity as chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which was announced in the Royal Gazette yesterday.

His order guarantees protection against legal and disciplinary action to officials working honestly on the cases and related work, such as managing rice in government stockpiles and releasing rice stocks.

The protection aims to cover officials who are working on rice policy and management committee, other sub-panels, and officials involved with any cases regarding the rice-pledging scheme and former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The order came after it was reported that involved officials are working under high pressure and fear possible legal problems.

Prayut’s order became effective immediately, with retroactive effect since the NCPO’s formation following the military coup on May 22 last year.

Article 44 of the interim charter gives wide-ranging powers to Prayut, as the NCPO head, to issue orders in order to help solve the country’s problems.

Yingluck is facing a number of legal cases stemming from her government’s rice-pledging scheme, which is estimated to have cost damages exceeding Bt500 billion to the state. She is accused of negligence, leading to the massive losses and irregularities involving the project.

Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said yesterday that the NCPO chief’s order has helped increase the confidence of officials working on the rice issues, as they face high risk of being sued by persons involved with the rice-pledging scheme and of being accused of unfair practices.

“The prime minister understands well that working on the rice scheme, in particular with the huge stocks, puts officials at high risk for being sued or being influenced or threatened,” said Apiradi.

 

Relief for officials

She said the issuing of this order should ease officials’ stress about doing work in cases involving the rice agenda, especially the release of rice stocks, as it is very risky because the price of the pledging price and the current market price varies. Government officials have also been involved in investigating the high stockpiles and decisions on the appropriate time for sale.

For officials, who work based on fairness and honesty, they will not have to worry about being sued in any case. However, if any officials were found guilty of unfair practice, they could be investigated on a case-by-case basis, Apiradi explained.

Moreover, Article 44 will also help protect officials who are working on the rice cases that involve former PM Yingluck and other ministers of her cabinet over high losses from the pledging scheme, fake government-to-government contracts, and unscrupulous release of government rice stocks.

According to the ministry, the current government has already released 6.38 million tonnes of rice from government stocks worth Bt75 billion. Currently, about 13 million tonnes of rice remain in the stockpile.