Amid the controversy surrounding the sale of rice buffer stocks to private traders, Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has ordered an audit of the National Food Authority's (NFA) rice disposition since 2019.

In a statement released Saturday, March 9, Laurel said he authorized the DA’s Internal Audit Service, which is now led by officer-in-charge (OIC) Joan Jagonos-Oliva, to conduct a review of NFA rice stocks.

With this, he directed DA-NFA officials and personnel to “extend their full assistance and cooperation to DA-IAS to ensure the successful conduct of this audit.”

According to Laurel, 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.

In an earlier press briefing, Agriculture spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa explained that the functions to import and directly sell rice to traders were removed from the NFA when the RTL was passed.

He stated that the NFA's only remaining function is "buffer stocking" for times of calamity and disaster, and that the buffer stock should be obtained from either the NFA or local farmers.

The DA spokesperson stressed that NFA's primary mandate is to have 15 to 30 days' worth of rice buffer stock, or at least 350,000 metric tons, on reserve in the event of a calamity or disaster.

Per NFA’s data as of Feb. 1 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.

It can be recalled that an NFA official accused numerous agency executives of inappropriately disposing of rice buffer supplies without bidding and at rates that purportedly harmed the government.

NFA executives denied any wrongdoing, arguing that the sale followed processes.

On March 4, the DA implemented the Ombudsman's 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 investigates allegations of corruption in the alleged disadvantageous sale of approximately 75,000 50-kilo bags of rice to private traders.

The DA chief has recently told newly appointed NFA OIC Administrator Piolito Santos to provide the Office of the Ombudsman all the necessary documents it needs in its investigation into the alleged improper sale of NFA rice.