Mingkwan sidelined over rice

The latest move of Samak is seen as representing the Government House's attempt to invade the turf of the Commerce Ministry, which has been inspecting national rice stocks on a weekly basis.

Samak ordered the permanent secretary of the PM's Office to form a special team and 36 sub-investigation teams to check if all 2.1 million tonnes of government rice supposedly held in warehouses of millers could be accounted for.

The opposition Democrats have been questioning whether the government has this much, implying massive corruption.

Samak's move is aimed at ensuring the accuracy of the stock on hand ahead of his government's plan to sell the excess supply abroad.

A Government House source said the stock check was designed to discredit Mingkwan and keep him out in the cold.

Mingkwan has opposed selling rice through government-to-government deals because they are susceptible to graft. If the special stocktaking teams find any discrepancies, Mingkwan and his officials would be held responsible and could be axed.

Another source said an attempt was made to distance Mingkwan from the government-to-government contracts with the Philippines. But the contracts were cancelled.

Under the contracts, the Commerce Ministry had full authorisation over the rice trade. But the government would like to remove some clauses in the contracts in order to open up loopholes, the source said.

"If the minister was removed from these contracts, definitely some unscrupulous politicians would seek ways to secure a commission from the difference of the price under the G-to-G," the source said.

The setting up of the inspection teams is not necessary as the ministry regularly sends its officials to inspect the rice and look after the stocks. This will create duplicate work for government officials, as well as huge losses for funding the inspection process, the source added.

Vararak Chansamart, the ministry's deputy permanent secretary, insisted that the government's inventory was intact.