The Department of Agriculture (DA) is launching a full audit of the National Food Authority’s (NFA) rice management practices following the controversy surrounding the sale of government buffer stocks to private traders.
Agriculture secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. ordered the agency’s Internal Audit Service (IAS) to examine all rice disposition data since 2019, the year the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) came into effect.
“DA-NFA officials and personnel are directed to extend their full assistance and cooperation to DA-IAS to ensure the successful conduct of this audit,” he said.
The RTL restricts NFA’s ability to sell rice directly to consumers, raising concerns about potential misuse by officials or traders, particularly regarding the sale of older buffer stocks.
“We want to see if there is a pattern of rice disposition that is disadvantageous to the government,” the DA executive said.
The audit coincides with the recent suspension of 139 NFA personnel, including administrator Roderico Bioco and assistant administrator John Robert Hermano, by the Ombudsman.
The anti-graft body is investigating allegations of corruption linked to the supposedly disadvantageous sale of roughly 75,000 bags of rice to private entities.
NFA records indicate that as of Feb. 1 this year, the agency held 361,396 bags of milled rice, with nearly half or 193,386 bags, in storage for more than three months.
