Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over rice scheme

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POLITICS
Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over rice scheme
THE NATION



BANGKOK: -- THE PHEU Thai Party has defended former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra over allegations related to the party's flagship rice-pledging scheme that caused up to Bt500 billion in damages to the state.

The party yesterday issued a statement stating the government's move to make Yingluck pay over civil liability incurred from the scheme has sparked criticism about a lack of transparency and justice in the legal procedures against her.

Pheu Thai claimed that the Abhisit government had caused losses to the state from its rice subsidy scheme and the Prayut government had caused Bt4 billion in losses from rubber deals with the Chinese government but no action was taken.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the government would face charges of dereliction of duty if it failed to take action against Yingluck and the statue of limitations in the case expired.

He said the administration must take action because the National Anti-Corruption Commission had forwarded this case to it and not other cases.

"This is an issue because the NACC had warned the Yingluck government about corruption in the scheme but it ignored the warning,'' Wissanu said.

Pheu Thai said in the statement that the rice-pledging scheme was aimed at supporting farmers like other state welfare projects such as basic infrastructure projects, welfare funds for the less privileged, the disabled and the elderly, and universal healthcare.

It also highlighted the rice subsidy scheme, the rubber subsidy scheme and handing out of Bt1,000 per rai to farmers.

"There is no country in the world that takes into account profits or losses from these [sorts of] policies,'' it said.

The party said the Pheu Thai-led government had spent around Bt870 billion on supporting farmers.

It said the money had circulated throughout the country and greatly contributed to economic growth, while the government had collected additional taxes of up to Bt100 billion per year.

Pheu Thai, however, failed to mention the high cost of maintaining rice stockpiles including warehouse rents and the fact that rice was kept for too long and had gone rotten or become infested with weevils or degraded beyond the point of being suitable for human consumption.

Pheu Thai also failed to dismiss widespread reports about rice-miller corruption and embezzlement as state inspections found rice stocks in their warehouses that did not match the amounts reported to the government.

Not only were hundreds of tonnes of rice missing from inspected warehouses, much of what was there had spoiled. Inspection officials found scaffolding instead of rice sacks in the middle of warehouses in some provinces.

Pheu Thai claimed that exporting the rice under the rice-pledging scheme enabled the country to earn more income from rice exports and secure the status as one of the world's top rice exporters.

But the party failed to dismiss reports that Thailand had lost its crown as the world's top rice exporter because of the Yingluck government's failed rice-pledging scheme, which attempted to manipulate the international rice market by withholding stocks to drive up prices. Competing nations took steps to boost supply at lower prices.

Pheu Thai said the corruption accusation against Yingluck, who oversaw the policy, was not fair and was untrue.

The Thailand Development Research Institute however estimated total corruption of Bt111 billion in the scheme and reported that corruption existed at all of the programme's levels - from upstream corruption (farmer registrations, rice sales and millers) and midstream corruption (millers, surveyors, warehouse owners and government officers).

Pheu Thai quoted the NACC investigative report in the matter as saying "there was no evidence that Yingluck took part in the corruption or allowed corruption by others".

The party said the corruption accusation against Yingluck was politically motivated by her opponents to destroy her.

"The most unjustified way is to rush the legal process to make Yingluck pay hundreds of billions of baht in expenses over the rice-pledging scheme even though evaluation of 'the damages' are still debatable and the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Office Holders has just started the criminal trial against Yingluck,'' Pheu Thai said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Pheu-Thai-accuses-govt-of-targeting-Yingluck-over--30271438.html


-- The Nation 2015-10-23

[jaidam]

If Phua Thai really cared for Yingluck they would have stopped her making herself head of the rice committee, unless of course they considered her knowledge of farmed grains and commodity trading to be up to scratch, which is possible. Anything is possible for them. The dozens of warnings that almost a trillion baht had been trousered by bent reds could have been construed by Phua Thai that things were not running so smoothly and Yingluck would be held accountable?

I notice Nutthawut and Arisman been silent on this matter - after being caught involved in the fraud.

[smedly]

Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over rice scheme​

seriously lol

[Fiddlesticks]

Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over . . .

. . . accountability! Heaven forbid there should be any accountability in government. It is certainly the LAST thing that Pheu Thai want to see. I think the concept of accountability scares the living s@#t out of all government officials in Thailand, aka Graftland.

[Thai at Heart]

Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over . . .

. . . accountability! Heaven forbid there should be any accountability in government. It is certainly the LAST thing that Pheu Thai want to see. I think the concept of accountability scares the living s@#t out of all government officials in Thailand, aka Graftland.

Welcome to the reality of prosecuting a political case such as this.

The burden of proof is on the prosecution let's remember. Semantics mean little. This prosecution will make for good legal comedy reading.

[Gunna]

" Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over rice scheme because she was the chair person."

At least they have already targeted some of the corrupt wharehouse owners, rice millers, and the Commerce Ministry for the fake G2G deals

Edited October 23, 2015 by Gunna

[halloween]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

[LannaGuy]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

ah more propaganda... what 'shonky electoral bribe policies'? even the Dems don't accept this nonsense yet you repeat the lie here

[halloween]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

ah more propaganda... what 'shonky electoral bribe policies'? even the Dems don't accept this nonsense yet you repeat the lie here

So you only disagree with the last 4 words? It might be faster if you read PTP's election policies and told me which were NOT shonky electoral bribes. Most, if not all, were promised giveaways and pay rises with no cost/benefit analysis, little delivery and even less effectiveness, the rice scam being the leading example. Also the topic.

You might also remember that at a rally, Yingluk got carried away with her own BS and unilaterally increased the promised price for rice. It was initially denied by the party, but then accepted, probably after Thaksin OKed it.

[chainarong]

Old ground revisited , there was many more in this scheme and nothing short of a Government enquiry into all aspects of the scheme would bring about a proper and fair outcome, former PM Yingluck was not acting alone , in fact the executive voted for it to take place, on whose advice and it is indeed interesting to note that the Prayut Junta lost 4 billion in a rubber deal with China , was that the Prayut - O transparency , that government to government agreement. like the Chinese deferred ( Because of unrealistic costs ) H/S Rail , making an example of Ms Yingluck, the introduction of section 44 and the Gateway certainly isn't helping reconciliation and is not endearing some sections of the Thai population to Prayut - O - Cha , Thailand is stepping backwards into history , like year 1992.

[AGareth2]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

ah more propaganda... what 'shonky electoral bribe policies'? even the Dems don't accept this nonsense yet you repeat the lie here

and he probably believes the world is flat

[Bluespunk]

"Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over rice scheme"

As she was responsible for it, fair enough.

[Ricardo]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

ah more propaganda... what 'shonky electoral bribe policies'? even the Dems don't accept this nonsense yet you repeat the lie here

There was the rice-scheme, which they failed to deliver the price promised (and at-the-end just stopped paying the farmers), and the free-laptops-for-all-kids "just like mine", which they failed to deliver, and the cut-price cars, to mention just a few.

There was the massive-increase in minimum-wage, which then took an un-announced 18-months to deliver, and is still not received by the self-employed and many workers in small-businesses.

But the best one was "all Thais will be rich within six months" ... they're still waiting !

Those electoral-promises may well have been "more propaganda", as you say, but it was PTP/Shinawatra pre-election propaganda, pointless to now try to deny it existed or that they influenced the outcome of the election.

So not at all "this nonsense" or "the lie", to describe PTP/Yingluck's election-platform as "shonky electoral bribe policies".

[robblok]

"Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over rice scheme"

As she was responsible for it, fair enough.

She was head of the rice program and PM, so who else should they target for this disaster.

200 billion a year 5% of the countries budget never included in the countries total budget kept off books. No civilized country in the world would tolerate such a fraud. For those who say the cost were not hidden. Please point them out in the countries budget 5% of the total budget should be easy to find (I looked before in detail and it was never budgeted even when World bank and other non political financial institutions told her it was wrong)

For those who don't understand, had she budgeted for it it would not be a problem but then she had to slash other vote buying promises and she could not do that. Remember that at a point she tried to lower the price the rice was bought for (the government knew it was going totally wrong then) the farmers revolted. So she knew it was going wrong and did nothing.

So knowing this and the damages it caused the country (remember this is money that has been spend off budget and has to be loaned now costing future generations of Thais money) they are right to go after her.

[klauskunkel]

Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over rice scheme

yes, they are. Duh...

Pheu Thai - your new name; Duh Party of Thailand.

(meaning of duh: an informal exclamation used to comment an action perceived as foolish, or a statement perceived as obvious)

[aussieinthailand]

So the post states that there was rotten rice, and rice infested with weevils, and rice degraded below fit for human consumption, as well as rice accounting issues,

sounds like there was indeed corruption so those that pocketed money should face legal action, no problem there.

Now rice can be stored for 4/5 years without any problem, So what happened to the rice stored when mark was in power? was it all sold? did some of it go rotten? was it counted again? was there corruption? or only when Yingluk was PM? Marks rice scheme did loose money but for Mark no case to answer, funny that...

Now the Thailand development and research institute has a figure of B111 billion but someone else has magically come up with B500 billion in corruption figures, little bit of a different figure there guy's now justify it if you can.

Now If you were paying for food storage in a warehouse for 2/3 years and your stock was infested with vermin/weevils whilst in storage would you not hold the storage facility responsible for the loss of your stock?

As for Yingluck actively allowing corruption, (<deleted>) , considering that she would know that their would be people coming after her if their was any chance what so-ever to link her with corruption that she would not just allow corruption to go on.

More accurate would be the state prove that she actively allowed it to happen and took NO action in trying to prevent it, GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.

Reason being all she has to do is come up with just one mention in the meetings minuets were she say's if there is corruption then we need to do something about if.

Just go after the thieves that did steal from the people instead of trying to link Yingluk with this and Thailand would be far better off.

[Expat1]

Well, if the shoe fits....

[trainman34014]

If it were me i would prosecute every single member of the past Government, not just Yingluck. They all knew what was going on so they were all implicated one way or another.

[MZurf]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

Your precious general is showing is true face, slowly but surely, and all you have left is your hatred for Thaksin. Again we hear about the "electoral bribe policies", perpetuating the myth that PTP did not win the elections but got their majority by paying for it.

Halloween, why don't you do yourself and us a favor and crawl back under your bridge?

[clockman]

Not enough jail space in Thailand, for all the criminals in government!

[NongKhaiKid]

"Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over rice scheme"

As she was responsible for it, fair enough.

One of the principles of command etc is that you can delegate your authority but not your responsibility.

Not applicable here of course.

[mike324]

Well after 2 years into the scheme with many complaints, PT and Yingluck said they will look into the corruption. They investigated and said some millers were corrupted, case close. Is that PT's version of accountability? Yea admitting millers were corrupt yet not doing anything about it just because nobody can touch them....

[halloween]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

Your precious general is showing is true face, slowly but surely, and all you have left is your hatred for Thaksin. Again we hear about the "electoral bribe policies", perpetuating the myth that PTP did not win the elections but got their majority by paying for it.

Halloween, why don't you do yourself and us a favor and crawl back under your bridge?

But they didn't pay for it, did they? The taxpayer did the paying. And now the account is being presented, they are whining.

[halloween]

So the post states that there was rotten rice, and rice infested with weevils, and rice degraded below fit for human consumption, as well as rice accounting issues,

sounds like there was indeed corruption so those that pocketed money should face legal action, no problem there.

Now rice can be stored for 4/5 years without any problem, So what happened to the rice stored when mark was in power? was it all sold? did some of it go rotten? was it counted again? was there corruption? or only when Yingluk was PM? Marks rice scheme did loose money but for Mark no case to answer, funny that...

Now the Thailand development and research institute has a figure of B111 billion but someone else has magically come up with B500 billion in corruption figures, little bit of a different figure there guy's now justify it if you can.

Now If you were paying for food storage in a warehouse for 2/3 years and your stock was infested with vermin/weevils whilst in storage would you not hold the storage facility responsible for the loss of your stock?

As for Yingluck actively allowing corruption, (<deleted>) , considering that she would know that their would be people coming after her if their was any chance what so-ever to link her with corruption that she would not just allow corruption to go on.

More accurate would be the state prove that she actively allowed it to happen and took NO action in trying to prevent it, GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.

Reason being all she has to do is come up with just one mention in the meetings minuets were she say's if there is corruption then we need to do something about if.

Just go after the thieves that did steal from the people instead of trying to link Yingluk with this and Thailand would be far better off.

The Abhisit rice subsidy was a price guarantee, and the government didn't take possession of the rice. However, some of the rice in storage goes back to 2006 and earlier, when the first implementation of the rice scam was proved a failure and a cesspool of corruption. The only thing funny is your lack of knowledge of the subject.

[elgordo38]

Pheu Thai accuses govt of targeting Yingluck over . . .

. . . accountability! Heaven forbid there should be any accountability in government. It is certainly the LAST thing that Pheu Thai want to see. I think the concept of accountability scares the living s@#t out of all government officials in Thailand, aka Graftland.

Welcome to the reality of prosecuting a political case such as this.

The burden of proof is on the prosecution let's remember. Semantics mean little. This prosecution will make for good legal comedy reading.

Yes the prosecution the onrushing train and the fair maiden Yingluck is tied up and laying on the tracks. No Sir Galahad in sight to come to this fair maidens rescue. The handwriting is on the wall in this case. When you were out of the country you should have kept on going. Now the quicksand of Thai justice will swallow you up.

[rubl]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

ah more propaganda... what 'shonky electoral bribe policies'? even the Dems don't accept this nonsense yet you repeat the lie here

In another topic Pheu Thai just stated to have spent 800 billion Baht on the 23% of the Thai population who voted for them.

[rubl]

2015-10-23 Targeting poor Thai Pretty Ms. Yingluck.

2014-03-28 Ms. Yingluck asks to be treated like other politicians

2013-11-27 After accusations of being a puppet for her brother Ms. Yingluck stated during a censure debate that only she was in charge.

[Baerboxer]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

Your precious general is showing is true face, slowly but surely, and all you have left is your hatred for Thaksin. Again we hear about the "electoral bribe policies", perpetuating the myth that PTP did not win the elections but got their majority by paying for it.

Halloween, why don't you do yourself and us a favor and crawl back under your bridge?

Why don't you do us all a favor, along with your several mates and stop trying to divert topics and insult posters as a feeble attempt at defending the Shins?

Let's not try and claim all who see through Shin lies, bs and PR are junta PM lovers; or try and turn any discussion that is critical of the Shins into a junta bashing thread.

The Shins promised the rice scheme, the free tablets for your child scheme as incentives to vote for them. There implementations were riddled with corruption and ineffective. The PM, who on a number of occasions stated she was solely in charge, not her brother, and therefore responsible must now face the consequences.

She should have taken steps to ensure things were correct. She didn't because she was too busy doing what her brother instructed to contrive his legal whitewash.

[MZurf]

Who else? If you accept the title and the big baht salary you also get the responsibility, even if you are just a stooge for your corrupt family members with their shonky electoral bribe policies.

Your precious general is showing is true face, slowly but surely, and all you have left is your hatred for Thaksin. Again we hear about the "electoral bribe policies", perpetuating the myth that PTP did not win the elections but got their majority by paying for it.

Halloween, why don't you do yourself and us a favor and crawl back under your bridge?

Why don't you do us all a favor, along with your several mates and stop trying to divert topics and insult posters as a feeble attempt at defending the Shins?

Let's not try and claim all who see through Shin lies, bs and PR are junta PM lovers; or try and turn any discussion that is critical of the Shins into a junta bashing thread.

The Shins promised the rice scheme, the free tablets for your child scheme as incentives to vote for them. There implementations were riddled with corruption and ineffective. The PM, who on a number of occasions stated she was solely in charge, not her brother, and therefore responsible must now face the consequences.

She should have taken steps to ensure things were correct. She didn't because she was too busy doing what her brother instructed to contrive his legal whitewash.

"Why don't you do us all a favor, along with your several mates and stop trying to divert topics and insult posters as a feeble attempt at defending the Shins?"

Never defended the Shins. What I do try to defend is the right for Thais to chose their own leaders. But this is obviously lost on the junta lovers.

[Ricardo]

from AussieinThailand

<snip for brevity, although I do agree, the warehouse-owners should be in court !>

As for Yingluck actively allowing corruption, (<deleted>) , considering that she would know that their would be people coming after her if their was any chance what so-ever to link her with corruption that she would not just allow corruption to go on.

More accurate would be the state prove that she actively allowed it to happen and took NO action in trying to prevent it, GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.

Reason being all she has to do is come up with just one mention in the meetings minuets were she say's if there is corruption then we need to do something about if.

<snip>

Since the chairperson (allegedly) never attended any of the meetings, of the rice-scheme committee which she was chairing, it would be a bit difficult to find any mention of her commenting in the committee-minutes, now wouldn't it ?

The fact remains that, ignoring all warnings of corruption, the PM pressed blindly on, and is now paying the price for her negligence, and for trusting the wrong people.

The damage caused to the Thai rice-growing industry continues to mount, there was a serious loss (partly due to corruption & partly to negligence) to the public-purse, one can only hope that the voters remember all this when they next get a chance to vote, and that they're able to learn from experience.

Meanwhile PTP seem surprised, or even indignant, that the then-PM is being blamed for the mess, which happened on her/their watch. If only that amnesty-bill had been passed, but it didn't !

Edited October 23, 2015 by Ricardo