Pol Lt-General Yutthana Thaipakdi, former chairman of the Senate subcommittee which investigated corrupt practices in the rice-pledging scheme, was speaking at the sixth session of state witnesses testifying before the court in the criminal case against former premier Yingluck Shinawatra.

Yutthana said the contracts between state-owned Public Warehouse Organisation and private firms for rice packaging and distribution under the scheme were flawed.

Yingluck, who attended yesterday’s session, is facing criminal charges over her alleged negligence in the scheme, which caused over Bt500 billion in damages to the state.

Yutthana said a small amount of rice packaging was to be carried out as stated in the contracts so only a small amount of packaged rice was distributed to needy people and most of the rice stock was handed over to private firms in big lots. This programme was suspended on August 31, 2013.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission accused Yingluck of negligence over the scheme in her capacity as the then chairman of the National Rice Policy Committee. Several other members of the committee have also been accused of negligence.

Another state witness, Prachak Boonyoung, deputy chief of the Office of Comptroller-General, told the court that the agency sent four urgent letters to Yingluck when she was prime minister in which it called on her to take quick action to solve various problems in the scheme.

Prachak said in the first letter Yingluck was told there were debts amounting to Bt540 billion in the scheme while other letters identified areas that were not transparent in the scheme.

It was recommended that the government suspend the project, Prachak said.

The Commerce Ministry was asked to tackle the scheme’s problems.