As was reported by The Daily Morning yesterday (6), instead of taking action against the relevant District Secretaries (DS) and rice millers regarding the alleged disappearance of 5,684 metric tonnes (MT) of rice produced through the use of Government purchased paddy, and the sale of such rice to the private sector at high prices during the 2019-2021 period, the Government is planning to recover the value of the relevant quantities of rice from millers at a rate of around Rs. 96 per kilogram. The Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilisation, and National Policies has sought the Cabinet of Ministers’ approval for this move, and this plan includes granting a grace period to those parties until 30 June to make the relevant payments.
The relevant Cabinet memorandum states that talks were held with regard to the recovery of payments related to the rice stocks produced from the paddy purchased under the aforesaid programme, which are not currently in warehouses, and that the concerned DSs have informed the Secretary to the Ministry and Treasury that rice millers were willing to pay for the rice stocks that have allegedly “disappeared”.
The Government taking steps to deal with this issue is a considerably positive move. However, the fact that those steps are focusing only on the financial recovery is disheartening, because the loss which was caused by the “disappearance” of the said rice stocks is not just a financial one. More importantly, it affected the entire nation, which, during the said period, was going through one of the worst periods of its history due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, we cannot deny the fact that this incident calls for more rigourous action, especially legal action, against those who have supported the alleged disappearance of the said rice stocks.
That is because this incident does not deserve to be treated as a mere mistake or an accident. The amount of rice that has allegedly disappeared is 5,684 MT. It begs several questions: How could such an enormous amount of rice just disappear or get misplaced, and how could such an incident go uninvestigated? In addition to these obvious and justifiable concerns, there are other allegations. As The Daily Morning reported quoting the United Rice Producers’ Association (URPA) earlier, these rice stocks had allegedly been sold to the private sector at high prices ranging from Rs. 200 to Rs. 250 in May and June of 2022, under the knowledge of the relevant DSs. Despite these concerns, the amount of money sought by the Ministry to recover the payments with regard to these misplaced rice stocks, for which it is seeking Cabinet approval, is a meagre Rs. 96 per kilogram (kg).
The fact that the Government does not appear to want to know the truth regarding the same is extremely alarming and suspicious. How could a country that is suffering from a massive food crisis and malnutrition not want to know what happened to 5,684 MT of rice?
While the aforementioned allegations may, or may not be true, if the Government or the relevant authorities do not conduct an impartial investigation, the country would never know what led to the alleged disappearance of this quantity of rice. The worst part of this issue is the wrong precedent it sets. The response of the Government and of the relevant authorities towards this issue clearly means that regardless of the magnitude or the illegal nature of these types of issues, which have an impact at the national level, it is still possible for the responsible parties to get away with their actions merely by paying for the losses that they have caused, and that is not a good example to set at a time where various parties including businessmen are more prone to opt for highly profitable, unethical businesses due to the economic crisis.
All efforts should be made to recover any loss that the Government has suffered due to the aforesaid incident. However, that is the least the Government or the relevant authorities could do. After conducting an investigation, stricter actions, including legal action, should be taken against those responsible. That is how unethical business practices as well as irregularities, especially those in the public sector, should be dealt with, and it is those types of actions that could truly discourage others from repeating similar actions.