On the afternoon of May 22nd, Thailand's Supreme Administrative Court reached a final verdict on the Finance Ministry's claim for compensation against former Prime Minister Yingluck in the "Rice Dereliction of Duty Case", ruling that Yingluck needs to pay 100.28 billion Thai baht in compensation.
The court ordered Yingluck to be liable only for the losses caused in the rice sales process, as this involves the exercise of administrative power. The National Anti-Corruption Commission of Thailand and the National Audit Office had sent letters warning of possible corruption in rice sales, but Yingluck took no measures to stop it, which constituted a serious dereliction of duty, allowing relevant officials to seek personal gain and causing losses to the state treasury of more than 20 billion Thai baht, and there was no reason for exemption. Therefore, the court ruled that Yingluck needs to compensate the Finance Ministry with 50% of the loss, which is 100.28 billion Thai baht.
In 2016, Thailand's Finance Ministry issued Order No. 135/2559, demanding that Yingluck compensate for the losses caused by the rice pledging program she implemented during her tenure as Prime Minister. In 2018, Yingluck and her husband jointly sued several government officials, accusing them of issuing illegal compensation orders. In 2021, the Central Administrative Court rejected the Finance Ministry's claim for compensation of 35.7 billion Thai baht in losses against former Prime Minister Yingluck in the "Rice Dereliction of Duty Case", on the grounds that the Finance Ministry admitted that there was no conclusive evidence to prove that Yingluck directly caused the losses and that the investigation procedure did not comply with the law. The Central Administrative Court also pointed out that the corruption mainly occurred among the officials at the executive level, and that Yingluck, as Prime Minister, only participated in the signing of the memorandum of understanding on inter-governmental rice transactions. Subsequently, the Finance Ministry appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court. Yingluck, the former Prime Minister of Thailand, left Thailand in 2017 and was sentenced to five years in prison in absentia for the "Rice Dereliction of Duty Case".
