The Democrat Party will ask the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) to probe alleged irregularities in a rice contract involving a Chinese trading firm.
Warong: Monitoring govt scheme closely
Warong Dejkitvikrom, Democrat MP for Phitsanulok, yesterday said he has closely monitored the government's rice pledging scheme and found that Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom had given inaccurate information regarding rice sales under the scheme.
In October, Mr Boonsong confirmed the government would export pledged rice under government-to-government (G-to-G) deals and there would be the opening of a letter of credit (LC) concerning the deals with foreign countries.
But the minister said in a recent interview that the opening of the LC was unnecessary as the government accepted cheques for the rice sales, Dr Warong said.
During the recent no-confidence debate, Mr Boonsong claimed rice was sold to China under the G-to-G deal and that the government could not interfere with the work of a Chinese trading firm that the Chinese government authorised to buy rice from Thailand.
Mr Warong plans to submit evidence and documents he used to highlight alleged irregularities in the scheme during the censure debate to the NACC on Monday.
He will ask the anti-graft agency to investigate Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the commerce minister and officials involved in alleged corruption in the rice pledging scheme. Mr Warong will hand the evidence to Amlo on Tuesday.
Mr Warong said his own investigation found there were alleged irregularities in the rice deal with China.
GSSG Import & Export Corp, a China-based trading firm, which bought rice from Thailand, was represented by a man who authorised a resident of Phichit's Bang Mun Nak district to sign the rice deal on his behalf, said the Democrat MP.
The man was an assistant of Pheu Thai Party MP Rapeepan Pongruangrong, wife of red-shirt leader Arisman Pongruangrong, he said.
Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said there was clear evidence that the pledged rice was not sold under the G-to-G deal as claimed by the government.
His party would seek facts from the Chinese embassy in Bangkok about the rice deal in question.
If the government's claim regarding the rice sale under the G-to-G deal was a hoax, relations between the two countries could be affected, he warned.
He asked the government to confirm that the person who paid money for the rice transaction was a representative of the Chinese government and produce evidence showing details of the payment under the deal.