Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the reported sale of rice by the National Food Authority to certain traders without the benefit of bidding and under a losing pricing scheme.

Laurel created a panel of investigators to look into allegations that some NFA officials had sold milled rice stored in the agency’s warehouse at P25 a kilo without bidding and after acquiring the grains while still in palay form for P23 per kilo.

“We do not brush aside reports of impropriety against officials of the Department of Agriculture, regardless of the source. We also welcome any government agency that may wish to conduct their own probe to ferret out the truth,” Laurel said.

“We are custodians of government funds — monies to be spent for the benefit of Filipinos, especially farmers and fishermen. Taxpayer money shouldn’t be squandered to line anybody’s pockets,” he said.

Laurel said those who would be found to have profited at the expense of rice producers and Filipino consumers would be “meted the harshest penalty under the law.”

NFA insiders told DAILY TRIBUNE on Monday that the stocks were bought as palay at a farmgate price of P23 per kilo but sold to private traders as milled rice for P25 per kilo.

The sources said the rice was then “rebagged” without NFA markings to be sold at P50 per kilo, adding that the sale did not pass through the NFA governing council.

Based on the DA’s latest price monitoring, imported special rice is sold between P57 and P65 per kilo, while local varieties range from P57 to P66 per kilo.

Imported premium rice is at P50 to P65 per kilo, while the local variant goes for P50 to P60 per kilo. Imported well-milled rice ranges in price from P50 to P55 per kilo, while the local variant sells for P49 to P55 per kilo.

Regular milled rice, on the other hand, is sold at P50 to P51 per kilo.