Pheu Thai has once again questioned the government's move to demand compensation for the rice pledging programme after high-ranking officials said 390,000 tonnes of rice was not missing as reported earlier and the programme was a good policy.
Commerce permanent secretary Chutima Boonyaprapatsorn said on Thursday the lost rice reported earlier might have been the result of accounting mistakes.
Finance permanent secretary Somchai Sujjapongse also confirmed her account on Friday, saying the Public Warehouse Organisation would submit remaining information to the account-closing committee by the third week of February and the damages would be concluded by the end of this month.
On Thursday, Jirachai Moonthongroei, chairman of a panel to determine the size of administrative penalty for the programme, said the policy itself was not wrong and benefited farmers. However, he said former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra had to be held accountable in at least three areas.
First, by agreeing to buy all grain at far higher than market prices, the programme distorted market mechanisms and gave incentives to farmers to grow without limits, causing a water-shortage crisis in subsequent years.
Farmers also used fast-growing strains which ended up spoiling the good strains they had always used, he said.
The Thai rice market was also damaged and lose its competitiveness, he added.
Second, Mr Jirachai said the fake government-to-government deals sold rice cheaply to be resold at a big profit, causing damage to the state.
At some warehouses, rice was missing and scaffolds were inserted to prop rice piles to give the impression all the rice was there.
Third, Mr Jirachai said the NACC had warned the government that the programme was causing damage and asked it to stop but Ms Yingluck did not comply. This was considered neglect of duty under Section 157 of the Criminal Code.
Pheu Thai party on Friday held a briefing questioning the logic behind Mr Jirachai's statements.
"Mr Jirachai said the policy was not wrong but Ms Yingluck, who supervised it, was. The programme was run by the 24-member National Rice Policy Committee, chaired by Ms Yingluck," said Anusorm Iamsa-ad, acting deputy Pheu Thai spokesman.
The committee set up two subcommittees in charge of operations and rice sales.
"If corruption is found at any level, it's only right to prosecute the wrongdoer instead of the superviser of the policy," they said.