The government today said that action against the erring PSU officials has been set in motion for not exercising due diligence in transactions of the export of non-basmati rice to some African countries between December 2007 and 2009. The Commerce and Industry Minister Mr. Anand Sharma said in a statement in the Lok Sabha that the inquiry into the transactions revealed that the exporting PSUs of the Department of Commerce did not follow the transparent procedure for selecting domestic associates or determination of the price at which the rice was exported. The inquiry into the matter showed that the officials did not act in the best commercial interests of the PSUs resulting in denial of legitimate profits to the PSUs. Mr Sharma said that in accordance with the assurance given to the House earlier, an inquiry was held and officials responsible were identified and now proceedings are on against them. He said the government has also taken remedial action to prevent the recurrence of such a situation. He said that detailed instructions and guidelines were issued in February this year to the concerned government departments as well as the PSUs with regard to the export of non-basmati rice on diplomatic considerations. He said pending investigation, the concerned private parties, that is, the domestic suppliers who were involved in these transactions have been black-listed. Mr Anand Sharma said that the possibility of the collusion between the domestic supplier and the importing agency cannot be ruled out. He said taking all this into account, the matter has been remitted to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) for its advice and all records available in the department have been forwarded to the Commission.