Thai rice stocks check to end this month

[webfact]

Rice stocks check to end this month
Petchanet Pratruangkrai
The Nation



Management of stockpiles in place

BANGKOK: - The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has speeded up inspections of the state's rice stockpiles and expects to complete them by the end of this month before implementing a plan to release the stocks to the market.

Meanwhile, two new acting directors-general of the Commerce Ministry's Foreign Trade and Internal Trade departments were appointed and they have set sights mainly on managing the rice stockpiles.

A meeting yesterday chaired by General Pratinant Saihasadee on behalf of junta chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha was given a presentation on the progress of inspecting the rice stockpiles in provincial granaries after officials were sent to the sites over the past week. The inspections aim to determine the quantity and quality of state rice stocks.

According to the inspection committee, it found some rice was missing and massive deterioration in quality. It said it was committed to completing its inspections by the end of this month and providing a summary on its findings at each granary nationwide. How much rice is damaged would also be revealed.

"The outcome of the inspection will be submitted to the NCPO chief for consideration. Those who are found to have been involved in corruption [within the rice-stockpiling system] will be prosecuted," said a reporter citing the meeting's resolution.

NCPO deputy chief General Chatchai Sarikalaya, who is in charge of economic affairs, has assigned the Commerce Ministry to lay out a rice-release plan, which would also be sent to the junta chief for consideration.

This follows a meeting on Saturday he held with operators of the rice industry, including millers. That meeting concluded that the release of stockpiled rice would be handled to ensure that it does not affect the market price.

ML Panadda Diskul, permanent secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, is chairman of the inspection committee. In his latest report on Sunday, he said 24 teams of inspection officials had been sent to 12 provinces where there are granaries storing state-owned rice. At some of the granaries, rice was found to have gone missing. Moreover, the inspectors found the quality of some stocks had deteriorated. Yesterday in Phichit province, inspectors discovered that 15,000 tonnes of 5 per cent broken white rice was missing from four of 13 silos. A representative of the Public Warehouse Organisation filed a lawsuit against KTB Agro Co, owner of granaries housing the missing rice, alleging embezzlement.

Commerce Ministry permanent secretary Chutima Bunyapraphasara appointed Duangporn Rodphaya acting director-general of the Foreign Trade Department and Jintana Chaiyawonnagal as acting director-general of the Internal Trade Department last week, replacing Surasak Riangkrul and Somchart Soithong respectively.

Surasak was reassigned as ministry inspector-general, while Somchart has not yet received a new appointment.

Duangporn said clarifying how much rice is in the stockpiles and managing them would be her priority in her new post. Previously a ministry adviser, she said she would need some time to work on the rice issue and would soon reveal information to the public, as rice stocks are a hot topic for people right now.

Jintana said the Internal Trade Department was investigating the information on rice stocks under the instruction of the NCPO. She said she would call for a meeting of senior officials within a few days.

The Internal Trade Department was directly responsible for the rice-pledging scheme of the elected government ousted by the junta. It was also responsible for managing costs of other farm produce. Jintana was previously deputy director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department.

Surasak and Somchart have both denied that there was corruption in the rice-pledging scheme and insisted they both carefully administered the project transparently.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Rice-stocks-check-to-end-this-month-30237946.html

-- The Nation 2014-07-08

[UbonRatch]

"That meeting concluded that the release of stockpiled rice would be handled to ensure that it does not affect the market price."

No need for such a conclusion, as it sure in hell aint going to affect brown rice world prices. Thailand - still the believer of its position in world leverages.

[chainarong]

They can finish this exercise whenever they like, provided that all stocks have been thoroughly inspected and the job has been done properly no short cuts and no favours.

[waza]

I am buying top quality Thai Hom Mali 2014 crop for 71 baht a kilo here in Aus.

I doubt if they could sell this plain white rice from

Thaksin's original rice shceme 2004

2011, 2012

and 2013

mixed with smuggled rice.....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/10618134/Burmese-smugglers-get-rich-on-Yingluck-Shinawatras-13-billion-Thai-rice-subsidies.html

for more than animal feed.

Edited July 8, 2014 by waza

[Ricardo]

"Rice stocks check to end this month"

While the initial check may perhaps be completed, by the end of July, I sincerely hope that proper checks & controls and audits will continue going forwards !

It was surely Yingluck's national rice commission's failure , to carry out proper checks & audits, which had led her to repeatedly make the now-shown-to-be eroneous claim, that none of the rice was missing ?

[waza]

"Rice stocks check to end this month"

While the initial check may perhaps be completed, by the end of July, I sincerely hope that proper checks & controls and audits will continue going forwards !

It was surely Yingluck's national rice commission's failure , to carry out proper checks & audits, which had led her to repeatedly make the now-shown-to-be eroneous claim, that none of the rice was missing ?

From Thairath July 12, 2013

Title: Thai rice will become really rotten because of those blabbermouths

PM Yingluck is carrying rice bag printed ‘love farmer.’

On the man with glasses: Media

On his saliva: Spreading the news

On the hooded man’s robes: Order to kill people, 100 deaths

On his saliva: Thai rice

On the back of the man on the left: Destroy the Thai rice market to overthrow the government

On his saliva: [rice] contains toxic chemicals

A man on the right: Slander

Phi Nooring: Real destroyers of the country

Mouse: Destroy Thai rice and destroy the country.

[robblok]

"Rice stocks check to end this month"

While the initial check may perhaps be completed, by the end of July, I sincerely hope that proper checks & controls and audits will continue going forwards !

It was surely Yingluck's national rice commission's failure , to carry out proper checks & audits, which had led her to repeatedly make the now-shown-to-be eroneous claim, that none of the rice was missing ?

Yes she is totally responsible and jaitime would be suitable for such a large loss and so much corruption. Everyone has warned them but they did not want to listen. They even silenced people who told about the losses.

However.. I think even in the West it would be hard to get someone that high up to do jailtime. I would applaud it as the damage is so huge and as the program was used to get into power.

[rametindallas]

One doesn't have to dig deep to uncover the blatant corruption of this scheme.

[BrooklynNY]

Credit pictures from Thairath.

[seajae]

is anyone really surprised by this, we all knew there was huge corruption problems before they even started to inspect it. There are a lot of big names caught up in it too, the ptp have been caught red handed with their fingers in the pie ans their attempts to cover it all up is backfiring badly. YL will have to take a fall as she is supposed to be in charge of it, failure to sit in on the meetings and do her job is no excuse, all the ministers that have declared it as being above board and no graft will also have to go with her as will the ones they were allowing to do it, cant wait till the trials, will be fun to watch them get their deserved endings.......

[Robby nz]

Surasak and Somchart have both denied that there was corruption in the rice-pledging scheme and insisted they both carefully administered the project transparently.

Is it any wonder these two have been replaced.

[renaissanc]

One doesn't have to dig deep to uncover the blatant corruption of this scheme.

faking rice stockpiles.jpg

I'd love to have seen the silo owner when this was discovered. I suppose he said: "I didn't know that was there. It's hard to get hard-working staff nowadays."

[renaissanc]

In the case of the missing 15,000 MT, it's just an error with the calculations. Maybe the calculator was not working properly.

[monkeycountry]

Some warehouses have been discovered to build huge scaffolding and cover them with rice sacks to make the pile look bigger, others simply refuse inspections claiming they are "not ready" and yet others have been found to have up to 80% rice missing, yet I have not heard of anyone getting arrested.

[than]

The biggest scandal of former Yingluck administration....... the biggest scandal of all times in Thailand....

PTP populist policy = Corruption, Scandal, Cheating..................

[Cake Monster]

Are the inspection teams really going to check all 17 Million tons of stock piled rice by the end of the month ???

That is the amount of rice stored and stockpiled in this country, not the paltry 500,000 tons that is being inspected

Less than 3% of the total to be checked by the end of the month.

The other 97+ % will escape inspection - why ???

Something smells, and it is just not all the piles of rotten rice

[Cosmoguy]

Has the Thai government been selling rice from the stock pile? If they were selling it were they just keeping the money and not paying for it?

[Baerboxer]

"Rice stocks check to end this month"

While the initial check may perhaps be completed, by the end of July, I sincerely hope that proper checks & controls and audits will continue going forwards !

It was surely Yingluck's national rice commission's failure , to carry out proper checks & audits, which had led her to repeatedly make the now-shown-to-be eroneous claim, that none of the rice was missing ?

Yes she is totally responsible and jaitime would be suitable for such a large loss and so much corruption. Everyone has warned them but they did not want to listen. They even silenced people who told about the losses.

However.. I think even in the West it would be hard to get someone that high up to do jailtime. I would applaud it as the damage is so huge and as the program was used to get into power.

At best she is naieve, negligent and grossly incompetent, At worst, fully complacent and a contributor to one of the biggest public sector frauds the world has seen; including driving some poor people to suicide.

Her crocodile tears, smirking and laughing afterwards might give a clue. Similarly the vowing that farmers would be paid and then not following up or commenting when they weren't. No reactions to the suicides. PTP did suggest many suicides were totally unrelated to the rice scam though.

On the other hand, happy to push other children out to make way for her son to walk out with Chelsea. Shins above all - including children who thought they were going to the highlight of their lives until the Shin's wanted it.

Draw your own conclusions.

But, you are right. Her biggest punishment is likely to be no more overseas shopping trips funded by the tax payers and far less photo ops.

Edited July 8, 2014 by Baerboxer

[Baerboxer]

Has the Thai government been selling rice from the stock pile? If they were selling it were they just keeping the money and not paying for it?

Takes a lot of money and a healthy cash flow to keep the gravy trained well stocked and running smoothly when you've lots of piggies at the trough.

[The Deerhunter]

They have to be way past the planning stage and gearing up for a huge fermentation project to get this substandard rice out of the market in into methanol for transport fuel. If not, why not? As long as it sits in inventory it will get worse and continue to undermine rice prices

[Ricardo]

Credit pictures from Thairath.

That third picture is an absolute classic.

Arrest everybody in sight, then everybody who's names/signatures appear on all the paperwork, before they decide to visit Cambodia, or Hong Kong, or Dubai 'for their health' ?

[Thai at Heart]

Credit pictures from Thairath.

That third picture is an absolute classic.

Arrest everybody in sight, then everybody who's names/signatures appear on all the paperwork, before they decide to visit Cambodia, or Hong Kong, or Dubai 'for their health' ?

Its the best built and strongest bit of scaffolding in the country. Just shows what can be done when there is enough money in it. Outstanding effort.

[GuestHouse]

Perhaps the authorities can follow up with an audit on the actual impact this PTP Rice Pledging Scam has had on Thailand's rice farmers.