Suranand told the Supreme Court’s division on criminal offences committed by holders of political office that there had been general guidelines on the implementation of the rice-pledging scheme, but the Cabinet never issued orders to restrict disclosure of public information.

Yingluck, who also attended yesterday’s eighth hearing on the case, is facing charges of negligence of official duty while implementing the scheme, which public prosecutors have said led to Bt500 billion in financial damages.

Suranand said the previous government’s spokespersons were responsible for disclosing to the general public information on the scheme. However, the former prime minister’s secretary-general declined to talk about alleged fake government-to-government rice deals in connection with the rice-pledging scheme, saying the Commerce Ministry had been responsible.

Meanwhile, Weeranun Thaddokmai, a surveyor contracted to work on the rice-pledging scheme, told the court that he had been responsible for inspecting the weight, type, quality and volume of rice pledged by farmers. He added that the previous government implemented the scheme to ensure that all specifications set by the government were met before the rice was stored at government warehouses.

Weeranun said one tonne of Thai paddy rice yielded about 660 kilograms of milled rice, while Cambodian paddy rice yielded only 400kg. In addition, Weeranun said he had been involved in inspecting rice allegedly sold under one of the government-to-government deals in which the buyer was a Thai entity, not Chinese as announced.