A lawyer for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has questioned the government’s latest inspection of state rice stocks, claiming the classification system was based on a “hidden agenda”.
Norawit Lalaeng said the inspection of 17 million tonnes of rice, conducted by a team working for PM’s Office Minister ML Panadda Diskul, could have been unreliable.
According to the official results, only 2.19 million tonnes were deemed standard quality and classified as “Grade A” rice. A total of 14.4 million tonnes was judged to be substandard “Grade B”, while the rest was classified as “Grade C”, because it was either rotten or had been registered incorrectly.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on Friday the country is facing total losses of 682 billion baht from implementing rice subsidies over the past 10 years. Of this, 518 billion was allegedly lost under the Yingluck government’s rice-pledging scheme.
He vowed to pursue civil and criminal charges against those involved with the huge losses. But Mr Norawit said the Yingluck government had conducted several inspections of state stockpiles, which came up with very different results to ML Panadda’s team.
He cast doubt over the method used for classifying rice quality by different grades, warning the detail of the criteria for each category has not been disclosed. He said the Yingluck administration set measures to cope with possible damage to rice stocks.
Rice millers, warehouse operators and selected rice surveyors were required to pledge a “100% asset guarantee” for taking care of government stocks bought under the rice-pledging scheme, he said.
This meant they would be legally responsible for any damage to rice caused by malpractice, he said.
Mr Norawit added that ML Panadda’s rice stock inspection results have put pressure on Thai rice prices at a time when the government has signed a contract to sell two million tonnes of the grain to China.
Ms Yingluck’s legal team is considering exercising its right to request access to state information on further details of the rice inspections, the lawyer said.