The Comptroller General’s Department agrees to pay compensation to farmers over the black-chinned tilapia issue.

Parliament, 'Dr. Vayo' reveals that the Comptroller General's Department agrees to pay compensation to farmers, and urges the Prime Minister to take responsibility for the environmental impact before collecting compensation from those who caused the damage. He admits that the committee cannot clearly identify the cause of the outbreak because the evidence is unclear. Dr. Vayo Asawarungruang, a member of the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Committee (HEC Committee), revealed after the meeting that followed up on the progress of the black-chinned tilapia outbreak by inviting 11 private companies that exported the fish to clarify the facts that the clarification today, the Department of Fisheries and the private companies gave consistent information that the information that occurred was due to data entry errors, mostly from 2 types of fish: Malayan tilapia and greentail tilapia, whose English names are spelled similarly to tilapia. The private companies claimed that it was the shipping compa ny's mistake, and sent evidence of export lists for several years in the past, along with fish health inspection forms, to the committee for comparison. The HEC Committee summoned 11 private companies to clarify the origins of the black-chinned tilapia. Asia Aquatics Company Limited confirmed that they had never imported or exported any fish, but that it was due to a shipping error in filling in the scientific name incorrectly when compared to the documents of the Department of Fisheries. Initially, as far as they could see, there was no species of black chinned tilapia. However, the committee will have to send it to the relevant agencies for further examination before concluding the report and sending it to the government or responsible agency. Dr. Vayo revealed that the subcommittee considering the study of causes and solutions to problems, including the impacts of importing black-chinned tilapia for research and development of species in the Kingdom of Thailand, which he is the chairman, believes that th e government should provide assistance to the affected people. Therefore, the impacts have been assessed and progress has been monitored by various agencies. Last week, the Comptroller General's Department confirmed that disbursements can be made, but only to registered farmers. It should start in the next few weeks. However, the problem is the environmental impacts, with no agency taking overall responsibility. Everyone is taking care of their own areas. Therefore, the person who should be responsible for this matter is the Prime Minister, as the chairman of the Environmental Committee, with the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment as the vice chairman. This is already the responsibility of the government. Even though he himself is not at fault, if the government has reasonable grounds to believe that someone has committed a crime and caused damage, they can use their right to sue the court to claim compensation. Once the process is complete, a court order can be used to summon evidence for further examination. Therefore, the important thing now is to provide assistance to the people and collect all bills to collect from the offenders again. Dr. Vayo revealed that CPF confirmed that it had sent samples of 25 pairs of black chin tilapia to the Fisheries Department. After importing 2,000 fish, 1,400 of them died without prior notice, even though the research had not yet begun. Therefore, no research evidence was sent to the Fisheries Department, and the Fisheries Department did not request it. However, Dr. Vayo said that the committee's conclusion would not be able to clearly state who was the source of the black chin tilapia outbreak, as there was no clear evidence. It is the responsibility of government agencies to investigate to find the facts. Source : Thai News Agency