PWO to take rice scheme deals to court

PWO to take rice scheme deals to court

The Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) is to file by the end of September a number of cases with the Administrative Court that involve 244 contracts signed between the PWO and other parties connected to the rice-pledging scandal.

The move was confirmed by PWO chairman Kraiboon Suadsong on Tuesday in response to a remark by Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, who said he wanted the PWO to finish filing all civil cases related to the scandal by the end of the year.

Of the 244 contracts, the PWO had already assessed damage from 127 of them and today expects to formally request that compensation be paid by the signatories, Pol Lt Gen Kraiboon said.

Many firms were contracted by the PWO during the Yingluck Shinawatra government's rice-pledging scheme to inspect the quality of rice pledged, while owners of warehouses were contracted to store the rice, he said.

Among other problems, the damages involve the delivery of rice of different types than in the contracts, and substandard and rotten rice.

As for the other 117 contracts, the PWO expects to finish inspecting the damage done under them and then send a letter to the parties signing these contracts with it to request them to pay compensation for the damage proved by Aug 15, he said.

After that any parties requested to pay compensations they are found liable to refused to pay will face legal suits that are expected to be filed by the end of September with the Administrative Court to force them to pay the demanded compensations, he said.

This will meet the deadline imposed by Mr Wissanu, he said.

The PWO has held a meeting with Mr Wissanu on the matter every month and he has expressed concern that the statute of limitations in these cases will expire before the PWO can bring them to court, Pol Lt Gen Kraiboon said.

The PWO chairman insisted the statute of limitations for the 244 cases is due to expire on Jan 1, 2020.

This month's monthly meeting between the PWO and Mr Wissanu is set for today.

The government's committee on rice policy and management decided on Dec 19, 2014 to assign the PWO and the Marketing Organisation for Farmers to pursue legal action against parties responsible for rice scheme damages between 2008 and 2014.

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