The amount of rice in state stockpiles under the government's rice pledging scheme remains a mystery, even after a sweeping inspection was done on more than 2,000 warehouses nationwide on June 27, says a source at the Finance Ministry.
The total figure gathered by the police as reported by the Public Warehouse Organization (PWO) and the Marketing Organization for Farmers is estimated to be 1 million tonnes short of what the Finance Ministry's committee tasked with handling the scheme's accounts shows, the source said.
The government asked the police to inspect the rice stored at warehouses taking part in the scheme in late June after discrepancies were found in the accounts of the committee and the Commerce Ministry.
As of Friday the government had yet to see the report, the source said, adding that the delay is likely to prolong the scheme's auditing process.
The police refused to let the PWO add more stocks to their findings after the inspection date.
"We'll know if there really is a huge mismatch after the police report is delivered, as we can compare it with our account," the source said.
But a high-ranking police officer said the report has already been submitted to the government. He said the police were responsible only for gathering the raw data, not analysing it.
"We have nothing to do with this," said the officer, who asked not to be named. "Our job is to gather data and report to the government. We have delivered the report already. Our job for now is done."
The cabinet approved a budget limit of 500 billion baht for all farm pledging schemes, but 759 billion has been spent so far.
To date, the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives has been repaid 114 billion baht from the Commerce Ministry for the money it paid to farmers.
This means the Commerce Ministry faces an uphill task in selling as much rice as possible to get funds for the scheme and stay within the budget limit.
For the next 2013-14 harvest season, the cabinet has detached a combined 50-billion-baht budget for tapioca and rubber from the 500-billion-baht farm pledging budget. This means rice pledging will get an additional 50 billion baht in working capital.
For the current 2012-13 crop, 21 million tonnes of rice has been pledged with the bank for 310 billion baht, still within the budget limit for the crop of 22 million tonnes (340 billion baht).