CONFUSION SURROUNDS the role of state agencies following the suspension of a government attempt to freeze former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s assets to compensate for losses stemming from her administration’s rice-pledging scheme.

The Legal Execution Department suspended its operation to freeze Bt35.7 billion of Yingluck’s assets after the Finance Ministry, as the damaged party, failed to provide details about her valuables and properties.

The Finance Ministry was also waiting for the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to supply a list of targeted items, an informed source at the ministry said yesterday.

The source denied that the ministry was deliberately moving slowly in Yingluck’s case. Locating the assets to be frozen is difficult and would require time and the cooperation of many parties, the source said.

However, a source from the NACC said yesterday that the anti-graft agency had yet to receive a written request from the Finance Ministry about the assets to be frozen. The source added that the list of Yingluck’s reported assets, as well as other current and former Cabinet members, has been readily available online on the NACC’s website (www.nacc.go.th).

“In Yingluck’s case, the NACC already verified the existence of her reported assets when she assumed prime ministership, after she left office, and one year after stepping down. But we don’t know about the changes in her assets as of now,” the NACC source said.

Earlier, the Finance Ministry issued an executive order holding Yingluck responsible for Bt35.7 billion, or 20 per cent, of the losses arising from her government’s corruption-plagued rice-pledging scheme. The former PM later petitioned the Administrative Court seeking an order to repeal the executive order.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the responsible state agencies were attempting to locate Yingluck’s assets before they could be frozen. The Legal Execution Department was responsible for freezing assets but it would need help from relevant agencies such as Land Department and banks in accessing the targeted assets, he added.

When asked if he had been told about suspicious movements of Yingluck’s assets, Wissanu said the agencies involved did not have to report that to him. “If they have to, the Legal Execution Department may report to the justice minister,” he said.

On Thursday, Wissanu said that authorities suspended the freezing of Yingluck’s assets as the Legal Execution Department could not locate any property belonging to her.

The Finance Ministry has set up a working group to locate Yingluck’s assets and the team is now working with relevant agencies, such as Bank of Thailand and Land Department, in completing the mission, according to the ministry’s permanent secretary Somchai Sujjapongse.

The team is also studying the list of assets that the former prime minister submitted to the NACC, he added.

In May 2015, a year after leaving office, Yingluck reported to the National Anti-Corruption Commission that she had total assets worth Bt610.8 million. This included Bt14.2 million in cash, Bt24.9 million in bank deposits, Bt115.5 million in investments, Bt108.3 million in loans, Bt117.1 million in land plots, Bt162.3 million in properties, and vehicles worth Bt21.9 million.

In addition to the civil action on asset freezing, Yingluck is being tried by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders in a criminal case where she is accused of negligence for failing to stop massive irregularities in the rice-pledging scheme.

The last hearing of defence witnesses is scheduled for July 21 and both parties will have 30 days before presenting their closing statements. After that, the court has 14 days to issue a verdict in the case, which is expected in September.

The NACC is investigating at least 11 cases against Yingluck stemming from her role as prime minister.