Bangkok – The government has launched a probe into an allegation that 940,000 tons of pledged rice is missing following an uproar among social media users calling for responsible officers to be held accountable.
Director General of the Department of Foreign Trade, Adul Chotinisakorn said the investigation has been assigned to the Office of the Auditor General of Thailand.
Rice bought under the rice-pledging scheme by the previous administration totaled 18.7 million tons, but inspections carried out by the Ministry of Commerce found only 17.76 million tons in stock.
The storage of pledged rice has been overseen by the Public Warehouse Organization and the Marketing Organization for Farmers.
Adul expects the investigation to conclude before the end of September, adding that the missing rice could be the result of miscalculation.
Since taking office, he said the current government has been able to sell 16.84 million tons of rice for 145.86 billion baht while the remaining 70,000 tons will be auctioned off later this month.
