Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. on Saturday said he has ordered an audit of rice disposition by the National Food Authority (NFA) to determine better the controversial sale of buffer stocks to private traders.

Tiu Laurel said he authorized the DA’s Internal Audit Service, now headed by officer-in-charge Joan Jagonos-Oliva, a director of the DA-IAS, to conduct the examination of NFA’s rice stocks.

“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,” Tiu Laurel said.

He said the audit will examine disposition data since 2019 when the Rice Tarrification Law (RTL) was passed.

“We want to see if there is a pattern of rice disposition that is disadvantageous to government,” he said.

The RTL disallowed NFA to sell rice to the public, a provision in the law that might have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous officials and traders through the sale of aging rice buffer stocks.

On Monday, the Ombudsman ordered the preventive suspension of 139 NFA officials and employees, including administrator Roderico Bioco and assistant administrator for operations John Robert Hermano, as the anti-graft body probes allegations of corruption in the alleged disadvantageous sale to private traders of around 75,000 50-kilo bags of rice.

Bioco also last week defended his decision to allow the sale of approximately 200,000 sacks of rice to private traders, stating that it was necessary to increase the agency's operational funds.

NFA data showed that as of 1 February of this year, the number of 50-kilo bags milled was recorded at 361,396 bags, with 193,386 bags in stocks for more than three months.