Newly appointed PWO president Pisut Chalakornkul said the organisation would closely monitor transactions every three days, in order to prevent corruption by its officers or millers.

"The organisation has ordered all provincial officers to send a flash report to the office every three days, to monitor any transaction in the pledging programme closely," said Pisut, adding that a special monitoring team would be set up to inspect certain areas in each region.

So far, about 200 corruption cases in the agriculture pledging programme have been uncovered by the PWO, mostly involving rice pledging, followed by tapioca and longan trading.

Recently, 2,600 tonnes of rice under the control of the organisation's pledging process disappeared from a warehouse in Phichit province, raising more concern about fraudulence within the PWO.

Pisut said a PWO committee would also consider whether to proceed with a Bt500-million investment to open a subsidiary company.

Last year, the PWO's board agreed to open a subsidiary company to focus on marketing, promotion and distribution of agricultural goods to foreign markets.

"The subsidiary might not be necessary at the moment, since the organisation already cooperates with private companies in supporting the ministry's agricultural marketing," said Pisut.

The PWO operates several businesses, such as warehouses, cold-storage facilities and piers, and is responsible for the ministry's pledging programme. Its main task is to stockpile farm-crop surpluses that would otherwise cause prices to fall.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation