Panel says losses from Yingluck rice scheme benefited farmers

Jirachai, who heads the fact-finding panel probing the civil liability in connection with the rice pledging scheme, said the panel found that there were grounds to the NACC’s allegations of dereliction of duty against Yingluck, related to the scheme.

Jirachai declined to pinpoint the total figure of the damages his panel has calculated, reasoning that the Prime Minister and Finance Minister have yet to approve it. His panel must also forward the total amount of damages to a panel headed by the Comptroller General Department’s director-general for consideration to consider the civil liability.

His panel started probing the issue in April last year, questioning government officials from 15 state agencies, eight people who accused Yingluck including former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, former Democrat Party MP Dr Warong Dechgitvigrom, and 15 of the accused including Yingluck and more than 20 witnesses.

He said his panel had told Yingluck to submit written testimony from additional witnesses by January 20 but she had not done that.

He said his panel investigated the case by focusing on whether or not Yingluck in her capacity as then Chairperson of the National Rice Policy Committee, strictly monitored and oversaw the policies as was her duty. His panel evaluated the amount of damage incurred to the state as a “manager and not as an accountant”. Although the country had spent a massive amount of money on pledging rice at a price of Bt15,000 per tonne, which was much higher than the market price of Bt9,000 per tonne, his panel did not regard losses from the policy as damage, he said. “The difference in the prices is considered as a benefit that the farmers received so we do not regard it as damage,” he said.

The state agencies and officials that implemented the scheme did not create damage because they were obliged to carry out the policies, he said.

He said that although the Finance Ministry’s Post-Audit Committee on losses accumulated from the rice pledging scheme included interest in the damage figure, his panel ruled out adding interest to the damage figure because the rice-pledging scheme is part of the country’s administration, carried out in the interest of the people. The scheme is not a rice trade, he added.

Jirachai insisted that his panel had been working independently and fairly without political interference.