In a bid to avoid suffering another huge loss, the government is planning to switch the rice bidding process from the Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) to the Foreign Trade Department to reduce political interference.

A rice-trader source said yesterday the bidding process would be more transparent as politicians are more able to sway PWO policy.

The PWO president is appointed by the same political party who heads the Commerce Ministry. Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu was expected to propose the idea yesterday during a meeting of the rice bidding consideration committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban.

Korbsak said the PWO is headed by an acting president who may be subject to political interference.

The Foreign Trade Department, which is also under the Commerce Ministry, managed the rice-bidding process for decades. However, the agency's responsibility for the task was ended when former commerce minister Chaiya Sasomsub took over the ministry last year.

Chaiya opened the bidding for 2.5 million tonnes of rice last year. He instructed the PWO to conduct the bidding instead of the department, saying it had more flexibility as the PWO is a state-owned enterprise.

 At that time, the bidding also raised questions among rice traders over its transparency.

When Porntiva Nakasai was appointed Commerce Minister she ordered a special committee to be set up to investigate the bidding procedure.

Nevertheless, after the bidding process was finally approved the government suffered a loss of more than Bt30 billion because rice prices had tumbled compared to the market price when the PWO was handed responsibility for the bidding process.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Rice Exporters Association, agreed with the government's plan to return the task to the Foreign Trade Department.

 "The department has more expertise on the rice market and bidding procedures. However, the department is still under the [commerce] ministry's administration, which could leave it open to political interference," he said.

The department's actions over the last five years of approving sales of big volumes of rice to a single buyer have been questioned by traders.

Source: The Nation