Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has done nothing wrong in the government's implementation of the rice-pledging scheme, Caretaker Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach has insisted to the anti-graft agency.
A protester from the pro-government People’s Radio for Democracy Group attacks effigies of National Anti-Corruption Commission members at the front gate of the agency on Sanambin Nam Road in Nonthaburi yesterday. TAWATCHAI KEMGUMNERD
Mr Yanyong addressed the issue in a statement yesterday as he showed up at the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to defend the premier over the charge of dereliction of duty in relation to alleged graft in the rice scheme.
He was the first of three ministers who Ms Yingluck requested to be her witnesses.
If the NACC indicts her, she is required to suspend her duties as premier.
Mr Yanyong said Ms Yingluck had laid out the rice-pledging programme which was justified both legally and politically, and kept to the policy declared during the election campaign.
The premier cannot halt or revoke the rice-pledging programme because the project was part of the government's policy address during the election campaign and it was announced before parliament, Mr Yanyong said.
To discontinue the scheme would be tantamount to deceiving people, he said.
The rice-pledging programme is aimed at bolstering the income of the majority of people and raising rice prices, which needs a huge amount of money to be used through various processes, he said.
Ms Yingluck has made continued efforts to prevent, scrutinise and suppress any graft in connection with the scheme, and she has neither neglected her duty nor committed malfeasance as accused, he said.
According to Mr Yanyong, Ms Yingluck conducted consistent monitoring of the scheme using both direct and indirect approaches, while no definitive conclusions have been reached about alleged graft or damage from the programme.
Yanyong: PM can’t halt rice scheme