A NEW scandal related to a Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) fire-vehicle procurement project has emerged.

Vilas Chanpitaksa, a former Bangkok MP, yesterday exposed alleged irregularities in the city administration's Bt160-million project to buy small fire vehicles.

He also vowed to officially ask the Office of the Auditor-General and the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the project soon out of concern the city administration would buy more such vehicles in the upcoming fiscal year.

"The BMA has paid nearly Bt8 million for each of these small fire vehicles. They are equipped with fire extinguishing equipment, which apparently came at a highly inflated price. A portable fire-extinguishing cylinder is available for about Bt2,800 in the market but is listed at Bt8,000 for the BMA project," he said.

He suspected that overall, each small fire vehicle might have been three times more expensive than it should have been.

more BMA paid three times the market price for another fleet of fire vehicles: exMP - The Nation