PM Prayut: Only 10 percent of 18 million tonnes of rice in stockpiles are good

[fab4]

On the contrary, I'm not sorry that I don't follow your's and nobrainer's mantra that money is more important than lives and I feel compelled to make that point. If you regard that as diverting attention, so be it, emotional rants and hyperbole to my mind are of the same ilk.

Money is money, a subsidy is a subsidy, it's been lost before, it'll be lost again, but if you really want to go down that line you might want to assess how much damage to the country was caused by Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat (PM 1959 - 1963) whose assets on his death were $140 Million US.............in 1963*. I don't think his salary and allowances adequately accounted for that amount........................

* In 2013, the relative value of $140,000,000 from 1963 ranges from $1,070,000,000 to $3,680,000,000 (http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/relativevalue.php)

Anything else you can google up in defense of PTP ??? is this a save the Yingluck campaign. ???

If you read or even understood my post you would have seen that I was defending the loss of thousands of lives as being more important than money supposedly "lost". Google? I have an interest in Thai political history which extends beyond Yingluck or Thaksin, unlike some. Then again I have an enquiring mind, something you should try sometime.

[ginjag]

On the contrary, I'm not sorry that I don't follow your's and nobrainer's mantra that money is more important than lives and I feel compelled to make that point. If you regard that as diverting attention, so be it, emotional rants and hyperbole to my mind are of the same ilk.

Money is money, a subsidy is a subsidy, it's been lost before, it'll be lost again, but if you really want to go down that line you might want to assess how much damage to the country was caused by Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat (PM 1959 - 1963) whose assets on his death were $140 Million US.............in 1963*. I don't think his salary and allowances adequately accounted for that amount........................

* In 2013, the relative value of $140,000,000 from 1963 ranges from $1,070,000,000 to $3,680,000,000 (http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/relativevalue.php)

Anything else you can google up in defense of PTP ??? is this a save the Yingluck campaign. ???

If you read or even understood my post you would have seen that I was defending the loss of thousands of lives as being more important than money supposedly "lost". Google? I have an interest in Thai political history which extends beyond Yingluck or Thaksin, unlike some. Then again I have an enquiring mind, something you should try sometime.

I read it mostly about Field Marshall WHO ?? etc---Money-it's been lost before---others are no brainers ???

Reading your post did not give me the impression you were defending the loss ??Lives lost to Thais mean little---money here is the be and end all. The recent history is the most important item as we have to learn from that. Occasionally we have to google but only to refer to past events that are history now.

Edited October 30, 2014 by ginjag

[Robby nz]

Much as I support the guy - no one has been held accountable for anything since the coup …… and the news just keep getting worse. I would like to see heads on poles to restore and order and deter corruption. Wishful thinking I guess.

How long has it been since the coup ?

What do you expect them to do without proper evidence ?

They have been conducting a thorough investigation into just what is in storage for the last 3 months and are now in the process of doing a complete audit of the scheme.

As for action; 2 previous ministers of commerce have been formally charged with corruption (see below) and 15 of their staff have been cited as well as a former permanent secretary of commerce.

Then there is:

Anti-graft agency probing rice deals, links to ministers

The Nation

July 14, 2014 1:00 am

.............................................................................................................................................................................

http://pattayatoday.net/news/thailand-news/yingluck-to-be-probed-ex-ministers-charged-on-rice-scheme/The anti-graft agency will investigate caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s role in the rice pledging scheme after bringing formal charges of corruption against two of her cabinet ministers.

..........................................................................................................................................................................................

BANGKOK: -- The Chaiyaphum Provincial Court has sentenced a rice miller to serve 20 years in prison and nine farmers six months after finding them in rice pledging fraud conspiracy involving the missing of 750 tonnes of paddy and rice from government stocks.

What do you expect them to do without proper evidence?

How about not dismiss the elected Prime Minister and overthrow the government for a start.

The elected prime minister dismissed herself when she dissolved parliament.

The military took over when the sad remnant of 26 unelected acting cabinet ministers refused to negotiate.

Nothing to do with the rice scheme at all.

[Keesters]

It is all very well reporting the downfalls, corruption, inefficiencies of previous administrations but what is really needed is the conviction of those responsible. This needs to be done sooner than later or they'll be nobody here to convict as they will all have left taking their ill gotten gains with them. I suggest that the present government closely monitor the exporting of funds belonging to anyone who was in office, national and local level civil servants, and all their relatives.

Unless the PM starts to take action against those guilty of corruption it is all hot air and the country has heard enough of that in the past.

[Fat Haggis]

To be fair, fab 4 has a point, you cannot put a price on a single human loss, I'd have also said the devastation of the Tsunami was far worse than the rice scam.

It's a huge loss financially but it's one of many scenes and scams that ultimately cost the nation.

I keep reading about how this will effect everyone, most Thais would never see or realise that small increases in vat are happening, it's not like a Junta patrol are going to go around every single adult in Thailand to demand 10,000-20,000 baht from everyone, to make up the deficit is it?

The changes in personal financial circumstances would be so small, that they would never really notice.

Of course it's not going to effect anyone not paying taxes or not working either apart from a small increase in VAT, subsidies are not designed to make money, this one did for some people and that's down to the authorities to deal with, the loss can be reclaimed over 24 months by small increases in local taxation as to Not haven effect detriment to the cost of daily living.

Are we actually saying it is nothing to be bothered about ?? when I said it is a third of the budget of the transport infrastructure costs. I say It is a scandal that has to be opened up, cans of worms-the lot.

Sorry mate a trillion loss can easily be swallowed up, and no one will feel any worse for it ???

On the contrary I'm saying it can be recovered over a couple of years by stealth taxation, so as not to have a negative impact on the population, of which many simply don't really care about politics and policies.

[Robby nz]

,They could try sneaking it in with the good stuff. Nobody would notice the odd one or two tonnes amongst a hundred. Must be some mug punter out there.

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 1 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

They are trying to get back the reputation for a quality product that was ruined by the previous administration selling bad rice, doing what you suggest would only mate it worse.

[Robby nz]

Indeed this sad news when more people are dying form hunger. Most states are committing crime for humanity in the name of economics. Should have been donated to the West African countries where there is Ebola outbreak that requires aid.

"Donated"? This is Thailand my friend, no money in that.

They already have donated rice to all the Ebola hit countries. There was a news report on that a few days ago.

Even the Yingluck Govt made donations of rice to poor countries, what the quality was is anyones guess.

[ginjag]

To be fair, fab 4 has a point, you cannot put a price on a single human loss, I'd have also said the devastation of the Tsunami was far worse than the rice scam.

It's a huge loss financially but it's one of many scenes and scams that ultimately cost the nation.

I keep reading about how this will effect everyone, most Thais would never see or realise that small increases in vat are happening, it's not like a Junta patrol are going to go around every single adult in Thailand to demand 10,000-20,000 baht from everyone, to make up the deficit is it?

The changes in personal financial circumstances would be so small, that they would never really notice.

Of course it's not going to effect anyone not paying taxes or not working either apart from a small increase in VAT, subsidies are not designed to make money, this one did for some people and that's down to the authorities to deal with, the loss can be reclaimed over 24 months by small increases in local taxation as to Not haven effect detriment to the cost of daily living.

Are we actually saying it is nothing to be bothered about ?? when I said it is a third of the budget of the transport infrastructure costs. I say It is a scandal that has to be opened up, cans of worms-the lot.

Sorry mate a trillion loss can easily be swallowed up, and no one will feel any worse for it ???

On the contrary I'm saying it can be recovered over a couple of years by stealth taxation, so as not to have a negative impact on the population, of which many simply don't really care about politics and policies.

Agree. everything is recoverable, Thais are immune to politics unless they are receiving something. The problem here is Thailand should not have to face the bill, not that it was a mistake, it was downright deliberate ploy, and the people responsible should have their assets / money confiscated.

[Musot]

90% gone bad in just four months??

And before anyone get started on YL, this was under the present government!!

More like it has taken them 4 months to dig through the stockpiles and see what is good and what is Rotten & Missing.

Good thing he put and end to this when he did.

This is the single biggest tragedy to be perpetrated against Thailand in modern history.

This is the single biggest tragedy to be perpetrated against Thailand in modern history.

Well, personally I would have earmarked the Red Drum massacre

If one looks at corruption as a type of tradegy, it can justifiably be labelled as,

"This is the single biggest instance of corruption to be perpetrated against Thailand in modern history".

Unless you would care to "earmark" some other instance of corruption with a bigger baht loss.

.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Musot

[Robby nz]

As our friend rickirs was kind enough to point out only 20% of the rice in storage is deemed inedible :

Only 10 percent of the 18 million tonnes of rice in stockpiles since June are of good quality and in good condition, 70 percent of them are of poor quality with the grains turn yellowish and the rest 20 percent have become rotten and inedible, said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha on Tuesday.”

That means that in all that 80% can be sold for food but only 10% as top quality product.

The remaining edible 70% will no doubt be sold but the buyers will be made aware as to the condition of the rice they are buying and will bid according to the condition.

We have already seen that the present auctions are being held on the conditions that the buyers can inspect the rice on sale before the auctions so they will know what they are getting.

I would imagine the best 10% will be sold off first to prevent farther deterioration so the first auctions can be expected to return the best prices,

If this is the case then as the poorer quality rice comes up for sale the prices realized would be expected to drop in line with the quality.

It was reported that someone had already made an offer on the bottom 20% to be used as animal feed but they put a condition on the offer that was as unpalatable as the rice.

[jamiesilver]

The rice scheme for the last 2 years has long been costing the country money, now its confirmed under the Junta just how much. I mean seriously how long will rice actually last if its in a hot humid damp climate? on a scale that big do they expect to keep it in aircon sealed premises>The idea itself was retarded and has put Thailand in a world of debt not to mention it pissed of Vietnam and neigbouring countries as Thailand tried to manipulate the cost of rise on a global scale.
Som Nam nah to the reds...

[Robby nz]

The rice scheme for the last 2 years has long been costing the country money, now its confirmed under the Junta just how much. I mean seriously how long will rice actually last if its in a hot humid damp climate? on a scale that big do they expect to keep it in aircon sealed premises>The idea itself was retarded and has put Thailand in a world of debt not to mention it pissed of Vietnam and neigbouring countries as Thailand tried to manipulate the cost of rise on a global scale.

Som Nam nah to the reds...

Most countries keep a supply of their staple grain in case of some disaster, natural or otherwise, this is usually around a years supply for domestic consumption.

This is kept in optimum conditions and Thailand has such a supply kept in proper silos. This supply is rotated and not kept for overly long periods.

However when the pledging scheme came along all these purpose built silos were already full so the pledged rice was kept in less than perfect (even terrible in some cases) conditions. If you look back at some of the reports you will see the mention of silos and warehouses.

There are Gvt owned and contracted warehouses involved and it would seem there were never any real checks to see if the warehouse owners and managers were actually looking after the rice as they should.

The results are what we are now seeing reported with more revelations to come when the accounting is complete and a full report presented.

[mikiea]

Whatever, they had better start doing something with it, that's one hell of a lot of rice to deal with.

[mikiea]

its wet, been wet and will be wet for some time. huh.....smoke em if ya got um. is always a good thought to fall back on. process the rice while uou can. do what is needed to save your stockpile. then fix the dam roofs in the buildings & install dryers like every other country does. make managers of the whare houses accountable if inventory not correct. wake up, smell the rice :-)