Published on January 13, 2006

The suspended president of the Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) will be sacked, and the Commerce Ministry plans to recruit a new president soon, Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said yesterday.

The minister said the first investigative report, which came out on Wednesday, found that PWO president Nobpasul Angkathavanich and nine other PWO officers, including two vice presidents, had overstepped their authority. The report stated they had violated the rules in awarding contracts to four rice surveyors last year.

Although the case is not yet wrapped up, the ministry must make preparations for the recruitment process, in order to ensure the PWO’s smooth operation.

Somkid said both PWO operations and its administrative board should be restructured, with a particular focus on human resources and transparency.

“Improvements in the transparency of official work and a systemised organisation should result after the restructuring,” he said. The ministry will set up a separate team to revise the disciplinary investigation, to ensure fairness and transparency.

Of the 20 companies that applied to become rice surveyors for the ministry this year, only six have been selected. But the ministry is looking for more, in order to facilitate quality inspection under the government’s rice-pledging programme.

As of Tuesday, government rice stocks under its pledging scheme totalled 3.58 million tonnes, consisting of 1.68 million tonnes of 5-per-cent white rice, 1.52 million tonnes of jasmine rice and 380,000 tonnes of local rice types, including Pathum Thani, Suphan Buri and sticky rice.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation

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