Forty-five people including 32 former cabinet ministers in the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration are facing a probe by the national anti-graft agency in connection with the 1.4 billion-baht cassava starch scandal in 2010.
The other suspects are members of the government's committee on cassava policy that was chaired by Manas Soiploy, then director-general of the Department of Foreign Trade (DFT), said a source at the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) yesterday.
Mr Manas was removed from his position by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) after being found guilty of corruption in the government-to-government rice deal scandal during the Yingluck Shinawatra administration, said the source.
The 45 suspects were alleged to have committed dereliction of duty after the NACC appointed a sub-committee to investigate the graft allegation in the cassava deal.
On May 4, 2010 the Abhisit cabinet approved a proposal by the cassava policy committee to sell to China Marine Shipping Agency Lianyungang Co, Ltd 140,000 tonnes of cassava flour at 10,660 baht per tonne, said the source.
Later the House committee on commerce and intellectual property asked Abhisit Vejjajiva, then prime minister, and Porntiva Nakasai, then commerce minister, to consider quoting the cassava flour sale price at at least 15,000 baht per tonne, up from the 10,660 baht per tonne price approved earlier.
The DFT had signed a contract to sell the cassava flour to the Chinese entity for 1.4 billion baht, or 10,660 baht per tonne, which was below the market price and the minimum specified by the cabinet.
Later it emerged the Chinese government had not authorised the Chinese entity to act on its behalf, and nor was the entity licenced.
The cassava trade deal was therefore not a government-to-government trade as it was earlier claimed.