Claims of substandard Thai rice distorted: ex-deputy minister

[webfact]

RICE-PLEDGING SCHEME
Claims of substandard rice distorted: ex-deputy minister
The Nation

BANGKOK: - FORMER DEPUTY Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach yesterday voiced doubt over results of the government's audit of the rice-pledging scheme, saying they appeared to have been gravely distorted and that granary owners and surveyors should sue the panel in charge of verifying the state stockpiles.

There appeared to be irregularities in the report released on Friday by the committee chaired by ML Panadda Diskul, permanent secretary of the PM's Office, he said, such as the finding that more than 14 million tonnes of rice were of "substandard" quality and only two million tonnes of "standard" quality.

That was unbelievable and did not reflect reality, Yanyong said.

Not all warehouses in the country were checked, only some on a random basis, he said. Samples from bales deep inside the stacks of rice were taken from only one in every seven storage sites.

The other six were only of rice on the perimeter. Each granary may have at least 20,000 sacks of rice, he said.

The timing of the release of the results of the checks on Friday was suspicious, as if there might have been a political motive since the National Legislative Assembly will debate an impeachment motion against former PM Yingluck Shinawatra soon and the Attorney-General's Office was about to decide whether to indict Yingluck, he said.

"The Panadda panel's allegation that substandard quality rice reached 14 million tonnes was manipulative and misleading to make the public believe that the scheme caused a massive loss because the impeachment against Yingluck will commence early next year,'' he said.

The Panadda report also contradicted the results of checks by the Office of Commodity Standards, the Foreign Trade Department and a committee appointed by the Yingluck government to monitor the rice-pledging operation, he said.

These panels regularly checked the quality and quantity of rice in the scheme and never reported such a huge volume of substandard rice, he said. The report could not be used against Yingluck because her government did not have to take responsibility for the damage as contracts signed by the state and granary owners made the owners accountable for any damage from rotting rice and stock losses, he said.

The contracts clearly stated that the owners of the granaries and surveyors who assessed the quality of rice before storage must be held responsible for damage incurred to the rice, he said.

Yingluck also appointed several teams to check stocks such as the Foreign Trade Department team, a committee checking the rice-pledging operation and the special police team appointed by ex-deputy PM Chalerm Yoobamrung.

"She would definitely not get impeached for dereliction of duty that led to grave damage to the state, as accused," he claimed.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Claims-of-substandard-rice-distorted-ex-deputy-min-30250374.html


-- The Nation 2014-12-22

[thesetat2013]

Samples from bales deep inside the stacks of ricw were taken from 1 in every 7 storage sites because the other 6 of every storage site they only found 1 that actually had rice deep inside the stacks. The rest were made to look like rice was there but had scaffolding or boxes in its place.

[ezzra]

And this is why you can take anything anyone in this country for their words, one day this minister say that,

the next that minister says something else, no checks and balances, no scoopfuls, no accountability,

and no facts, all is self serving agendas of this or that government bureaucrats, police and army officials..

[Fiddlesticks]

Claims of substandard rice distorted: ex-deputy minister

That was unbelievable and did not reflect reality, Yanyong said.

This is probably true. In fact it is more than likely worse!

[SOTIRIOS]

.....isn't that slander against the government....

[Bob12345]

And this is why you can take anything anyone in this country for their words, one day this minister say that,

the next that minister says something else, no checks and balances, no scoopfuls, no accountability,

and no facts, all is self serving agendas of this or that government bureaucrats, police and army officials..

And it was easy to avoid: hire an international accounting firm to do the checks, and you don't have all these problems a little later (it would cost you some money, but we are talking about hundreds of tons of rice here, so a little extra overhead costs to find "the truth" will be fine.

But I guess finding the real numbers was not in the best interest of the country or the junta.

[chainarong]

Lets hear the opinions from the agriculture department, the ones that should be in-charge of monitoring this mess and lets have a report issued at heads of department level not one from political hacks, let the agricultural department tell it how it is.

[JOC]

And while the politicians continue their meaningless pissingcontest, the Thai taxpayers are paying 2 billion bath per month in storage costs!!

Get rid of the bloody rice, let whoever is responsible for the mess face the music, and move on!!

[wabothai]

The truth is inconvenient. Merry xmas.

[Lupatria]

I guess members of the household of Mr. Yanyong already switched their diet to bread and potatoes quite a while ago.

[JingerBen]

Legally transfer ownership to Thaksin Shinawatra at its estimated value, and then proceed to take possession of his assets as payment.

[Pib]

"Sampling" works just fine...a statistically proven quality assurance model....used in many industries....both civilian and government.

But I guess for some in Thailand when sampling discovers low quality products/services which in turns supports legal action then it's considered a bad method to determine quality....then "every" bag of rice needs to be checked which should take forever and draw out the legal process forever or death (whichever comes first).

[Pib]

"Sampling" works just fine...a statistically proven quality assurance model....used in many industries....both civilian and government.

But I guess for some in Thailand when sampling discovers low quality products/services which in turns supports legal action then it's considered a bad method to determine quality....then "every" bag of rice needs to be checked which should take forever and draw out the legal process forever or death (whichever comes first).

[rebelplatoon]

Guess he would have liked K. Panadda and his team to inspect every bag of rice.

Very hard to find the good rice in between the much higher content of bad rice and other

crap to conceal the failure of this plan.

[rubl]

Of course this ex Dept. Minister of commerce was just as solidly informed on the subject as his boss the Minister of commerce Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan, a government spin doctor and former head of the now defunct iTV news channel owned by the Shinawatra Family or his predecessor who was sacket by PM Yingluck after coming under fire over a rice intervention scheme that resulted in huge losses to the budget and saw the country lose its place as the world's top rice exporter

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/30/us-thailand-politics-idUSBRE95T07H20130630

[davehowden]

Why would the junta de-value the stockpiled rice, so that they can get less money for it??

[klauskunkel]

Yingluck also appointed several teams to check stocks such as the Foreign Trade Department team, a committee checking the rice-pledging operation and the special police team appointed by ex-deputy PM Chalerm Yoobamrung.

"She would definitely not get impeached for dereliction of duty that led to grave damage to the state, as accused," he claimed.

If she assigned Chalerm to check on the rice, that appointment alone is a de facto dereliction of duty. Hic.

[Pib]

Why would the junta de-value the stockpiled rice, so that they can get less money for it??

Because they know they are going to have to offload a lot of low quality rice at a low price....so, they are just preparing the public now so the public won't be shocked when the govt sells rice at far below market price.

In fact, I'm sure once the govt starts selling the low quality rice they will spin the press releases to say they got a higher price than expected for the low quality rice and sold more than expected...give the govt a pat on the back.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Pib

[Freed1948]

Yingluck also appointed several teams to check stocks such as the Foreign Trade Department team, a committee checking the rice-pledging operation and the special police team appointed by ex-deputy PM Chalerm Yoobamrung.

"She would definitely not get impeached for dereliction of duty that led to grave damage to the state, as accused," he claimed.

If she assigned Chalerm to check on the rice, that appointment alone is a de facto dereliction of duty. Hic.

There was more rice when Chalerm checked as he was seeing double at the time.

[djjamie]

Maybe the former deputy commerce minister should do a "PTP investigation" that took 2 days and found absolutely no irregularities.

[EyesWideOpen]

Samples from bales deep inside the stacks of ricw were taken from 1 in every 7 storage sites because the other 6 of every storage site they only found 1 that actually had rice deep inside the stacks. The rest were made to look like rice was there but had scaffolding or boxes in its place.

The hollow spaces in the storage sites are a bit suspicious...... Clearly a lot of planning and

work. This scam is hard to figure out. I am starting to think now that the plan before

the coup was to have a lot of bogus sales put money in the hands of the right people .

Then later on in the scam declare that with bad luck a lot of the rice had gone bad

and would need to be destroyed, and of course the rice never existed. The hollow

storage sites were in case there was inspections. But of course the coup destroyed

all their planning and brought the spotlight to bear on this incredible ugly mess.

I sure as hell hope that when the government figures out who stole what, that there

will be some serious clawbacks....

[metisdead]

A post in violation of fair use policy has been removed. A post using intentional misspelling of a persons name has been removed. If you don’t want your post to be removed, spell people’s names correctly.

[FangFerang]

The numbers being fielded by both sides do not match. Inconsistent reporting, contradictory figures, and obfuscation seem to be the same tool in different hands.

Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss.

[smutcakes]

How the hell can anyone trust ML Panadda Diskul in a complex investigation.

He cannot even unravel a small scale attempt at suspect procurement in his own department.

[billd766]

And this is why you can take anything anyone in this country for their words, one day this minister say that,

the next that minister says something else, no checks and balances, no scoopfuls, no accountability,

and no facts, all is self serving agendas of this or that government bureaucrats, police and army officials..

And it was easy to avoid: hire an international accounting firm to do the checks, and you don't have all these problems a little later (it would cost you some money, but we are talking about hundreds of tons of rice here, so a little extra overhead costs to find "the truth" will be fine.

But I guess finding the real numbers was not in the best interest of the country or the junta.

I suppose that you accepted the "real" numbers that the PTP survey did, and found NO irregularities) as the truth then? After all it took them almost a week or 10 days to check EVERY rice storage facility in Thailand.

[Bob12345]

And this is why you can take anything anyone in this country for their words, one day this minister say that,

the next that minister says something else, no checks and balances, no scoopfuls, no accountability,

and no facts, all is self serving agendas of this or that government bureaucrats, police and army officials..

And it was easy to avoid: hire an international accounting firm to do the checks, and you don't have all these problems a little later (it would cost you some money, but we are talking about hundreds of tons of rice here, so a little extra overhead costs to find "the truth" will be fine.

But I guess finding the real numbers was not in the best interest of the country or the junta.

I suppose that you accepted the "real" numbers that the PTP survey did, and found NO irregularities) as the truth then? After all it took them almost a week or 10 days to check EVERY rice storage facility in Thailand.

Seriously wondering what point of my request for "independent verification" would lead you to suppose I would accept everything the PTP has been claiming.

Maybe you can explain, but probably you will not even try.

[rubl]

And this is why you can take anything anyone in this country for their words, one day this minister say that,

the next that minister says something else, no checks and balances, no scoopfuls, no accountability,

and no facts, all is self serving agendas of this or that government bureaucrats, police and army officials..

And it was easy to avoid: hire an international accounting firm to do the checks, and you don't have all these problems a little later (it would cost you some money, but we are talking about hundreds of tons of rice here, so a little extra overhead costs to find "the truth" will be fine.

But I guess finding the real numbers was not in the best interest of the country or the junta.

I suppose that you accepted the "real" numbers that the PTP survey did, and found NO irregularities) as the truth then? After all it took them almost a week or 10 days to check EVERY rice storage facility in Thailand.

Seriously wondering what point of my request for "independent verification" would lead you to suppose I would accept everything the PTP has been claiming.

Maybe you can explain, but probably you will not even try.

As far as I know the last independent foreign auditor was shot in 1998 or so, an Australian chap.

[pattayasnowman]

Samples from bales deep inside the stacks of ricw were taken from 1 in every 7 storage sites because the other 6 of every storage site they only found 1 that actually had rice deep inside the stacks. The rest were made to look like rice was there but had scaffolding or boxes in its place.

And your evidence of this is where ????

[bangon04]

The rice is not spoiled, it is just resting.....

[rickirs]

"... 14 million tonnes of rice were of "substandard" quality and only two million tonnes of "standard" quality." - Panadda.

Putting aside the political and personal disputes people have with Yingluck and her administration, from purely a scientific perspective Yanyong is correct that the report now from Panadda was at least "misleading." The inspections don't back Panadda's allegations.

When you look at the original record of the NCPO audit led by Panadda as reported by The Nation, Panadda's recent statements on rice quality look more like a fanciful storyline lacking a factual basis. If Panadda's alleged two million tons of standard quality was accurate, that rice would have been sold out well before the end of 2014, yet the government is continuing to pay Bt2 billion/mo. for granary storage and Thailand has now become No.1 this year in rice sales. Now that the NLA is considering Yingluck's impeachment, it seems history needs to be rewritten to fit the crime.

'Nationwide rice audit ordered by Junta nearly complete' & 'Improvement on many fronts after two months: NCPO Nationwide rice audit ordered by Junta nearly complete'

Nation July 28, 2014

"Since the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) initiated the inspection early this month, 18 million tonnes of pledged rice in 1,787 granaries around the country have been checked by troops against records for both quantity and quality."

"General Prayuth Chanocha, director of the NCPO, has said the regime was committed to inspecting the quality and quantity of rice stored at government granaries nationwide, as well as bringing charges against anyone found involved in fraud or non-transparent activity."

"Of that, 126 granaries [as of Friday] were found to have irregular rice, and the type of rice in storage was not the same as that listed on the records," he said."

"However, inspections in 14 eastern provinces found few flaws. There were 429.8 tonnes of rice missing or 0.018 per cent of the 2.32 million tonnes in total on the lists, the Second Army Area spokesman said yesterday."

The Commerce Ministry is preparing to resume selling rice from its stocks early next month, gradually in small lots, at the rate of about 500,000 tonnes a month.

'80% of rice is fine'

The Nation July 29, 2014

"Only 10 per cent of rice stockpiles has spoiled and only some sacks were missing, while 80 per cent was in still good condition, the rice inspection committee reported to the Rice Policy Committee meeting yesterday." [Panadda is head of the committee]

"The audit of 18 million tonnes of pledged rice stored in granaries has progressed by 72 per cent to 1,290 out of 1,787 locations nationwide."

Edited December 22, 2014 by rickirs