Minister of Justice orders DSI to closely watch, urgently tackle problems of members of the Krabi Oil–Palm Farmers Cooperatives Federation Limited, coordinate with the Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives for acknowledgment and solutions

Minister of Justice orders DSI to closely watch, urgently tackle problems of members of the Krabi Oil–Palm Farmers Cooperatives Federation Limited, coordinate with the Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives for acknowledgment and solutions

       On Monday, November 15, 2021, 3:30 p.m. at the Thailand National Sport University, Krabi Campus, Krabi Province, the Minister of Justice Mr. Somsak Thepsuthin and the Director-General of the DSI Mr. Triyarith Temahivong received a complaint from the representative of over 200 members of the oil-palm farmer group as the injured persons from the joint venture of cooperatives’ members in various provinces of the upper southern region. In this case there are victims or stakeholders from more than 50,000 households.

       Due to the submission of letter to the DSI by the Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee on Consideration and Study of Systematic Management of Oil-Palm requesting inspection of corruption and embezzlement in the Krabi Oil–Palm Farmers Cooperatives Federation Limited by Mr.Sanong Pandang, a former committee member and employee of the Krabi Oil–Palm Farmers Cooperatives Federation Limited, Khlong Thom Branch as the representative of the chairman of the Krabi Oil–Palm Farmers Cooperatives Federation Limited with details that after field visits to provinces growing oil-palm trees, the committee found the problems of the palm oil extraction factory of aforesaid cooperatives managed by members of 13 Cooperatives and 34 Cooperatives’ networks facing with losses over 1 billion baht before shutdowns. The study by the Committee revealed suspicion of management. The Committee, therefore, filed its complaint to the Minister of Justice for investigation and inquiry into this matter.

       The Justice Minister stated that “I, as the Minister of Justice, is responsible for facilitating justice, supporting special crime prevention and suppression. The problem of the Krabi Oil–Palm Farmers Cooperatives Federation Limited is both the important problem of the public and the society with adverse impacts on over 50,000 households. The government and the ministry of justice will not ignore but take great care of this case. Today, I met with the network of injured persons suffering from the shutdown of the palm oil extraction factory in Krabi province causing broad effects. From explanations of the representatives of the victims, whether the group of former employees of the Cooperatives and the group of suffered farmers, there are 2 main groups of injured persons. The first group is members suffering from the acts of the former executives. The DSI is responsible for this group. I have asked the DSI to take actions urgently for finding facts and if it is likely to be a special case, then it will be proceedings according to the Special Case Investigation Act. For the second group, it is the group of unemployed employees receiving partial compensation and other deserved payments. Moreover, the current management problem of the Cooperatives is lack of liquidity and the need for the government’s loan sources to increase its liquidity, including the support of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives or BACC by not collecting interest of 72 million baht previously borrowed by the Cooperatives. In this matter, there are 2 choices, namely, directly submitting the matter to the Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, or filing the case to the Director-General of the DSI for coordinating and forwarding the case to competent agencies in order to resolve the problems systematically”.

       The Director-General of the DSI, Mr. Triyarith Temahivong stated that after acceptance of the said matter, the DSI reported this case to the Minister of Justice, Mr. Somsak Thepsuthin who ordered the DSI to expedite its investigation for evidence, I, therefore, assigned the Special Case Operation Center Region 8 and the Bureau of Crime Relating to Submission of Bids to Government Agencies to jointly investigate for considering the nature of the said case, its huge impacts on many members of Oil-Palm Farmers and its wide and high value of damage. Initially, I was reported that a criminal offence is committed. It is now under consideration of the DSI whether this case is a special case or not. If it is not a special case, I will inform and forward the case to related officers for further actions”

Dated November 15, 2021