BANGKOK, 24 April 2014 – Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has asserted that rice in the government’s stockpile has not gone missing as suspected by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), urging the latter to conduct an inspection of the government’s rice stock to determine whether rice was really missing.
Ms. Yingluck wrote on her Facebook that figures in the documents from the rice mortgage accounting sub-committee did not take into account the 2.9 million tons of rice in the possession of the Government Warehouse Organization and the Marketing Organization for Farmers, refuting the claim that some rice had gone missing.
She suggested that for the purpose of transparency, the NACC should seek more evidence and inspect the rice stock itself. The suggestion has been forwarded to the NACC through Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuang-rat.
Minister Yanyong visited the NACC on Wednesday to submit a letter asserting that inspections of the rice stock in warehouses, carried out in March by Ministry of Commerce officials and members of the rice stock inspection committee, found that the entire 18.7 million tons of rice was intact and another 1.1 million tons was being fumigated.
