The controversial rice-pledging scheme has caused a bad stink. While there is escalating pressure for the government to clarify the scale of the losses suffered by the programme, following warnings by Moody's Investors Service that they might threaten the country's credit rating, the ministers involved have remained tight-lipped.
Last week's press conference, aimed at easing public concerns and chaired by Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, was extremely frustrating for reporters.
Mr Boonsong failed to provide any significant details about the losses or clarify the status of the troubled scheme.
The only thing of substance to come out of the press conference was the insistence that the scheme's deficit "had not reached 260 billion baht" as some of the rice remains unsold.
His inability to clarify the situation was strange, given that the scheme is now in its second year.
To calculate the true deficit, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said he would use the same figures and accounting methods used by the sub-committee under deputy permanent secretary for finance Supa Piyajitti.
The expenses incurred under the scheme include such things as payments to farmers, milling fees, rent on rice-storage facilities, surveyors' fees and interest on loans.
Once calculated, the total expenses will be deducted from the amount of income generated from rice sales.
One problem, however, is the government's calculation does not take into account the falling value of the unsold rice (estimated to drop 20% a year), which is why many people believe the true loss will be more than 300 billion, and not 260 billion as previously stated.
Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who played a key role in designing the pledging scheme, should have foreseen the huge losses given that the 15,000 baht per tonne pledge price is nearly 50% higher than the true market price.
But trying to manipulate global rice prices just because Thailand is one of the world's leading exporters was always going to be a bad move, and huge losses were inevitable.
Perhaps Thaksin should have realised that manipulating the global market for rice trading is not as easy as running a telecommunications empire under a family monopoly.
Thaksin is well known for his populist policies, which enabled his Thai Rak Thai Party to win a landslide election victory in 2005.
The party was the first in Thai history to win an overall majority, with 376 seats to the Democrats' 96.
The poll result enabled the tycoon-turned-politician to form a one-party government. And thanks to its continued populist policies _ from the 800-billion-baht Village Fund, to Otop, the Farmers Debt relief programme and the universal health scheme _ Thaksin's party, under any name, has never lost an election.
But of all the populist schemes, rice pledging has created the most problems for the government.
Since questions began to be asked, Yingluck Shinawatra's administration has done everything it can to dodge the issue and conceal key facts and figures.
Government officials involved in the scheme, be they at the Commerce Ministry or the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, have been told to keep their mouths well and truly shut. And those who have spoken out against the rice-pledging scheme have been transferred from their positions.
Some parts of the Commerce Ministry are now no-go areas for reporters, and a finger-scanning security system has been installed.
But worst of all is the failure of Commerce Minister Boonsong to provide logical answers to questions on the issue, especially those concerning the dubious bidding for rice from the government's stockpiles, and the possible breach of regulations that has enabled ineligible farmers to benefit from the pledging scheme.
Concealment of the facts and lack of transparency have destroyed any merit the scheme might once have had.
But sooner rather than later, all of the hidden figures, and especially those relating to the deficit, will become known.
Just as the Thai proverb says, you can't hide a dead elephant with a lotus leaf.
Wichit Chantanusornsiri is a senior economics reporter, Bangkok Post.