The fire-equipment corruption scandal shifted to the national level yesterday after Democrat Party deputy Alongkorn Polabutr said he would scrutinise caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Culture Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.

There were irregularities, he said, in political decisions endorsing the Cabinet's approval of the Bt6.8-billion purchase through tied-over budget allocation for seven years, even before a contract was signed with Austrian manufacturer Steyr Daimler Puch.

Alongkorn said he would make a request today to the Department of Special Investigation, which is already investigating the scandal, for it to look further into the matter - particularly the involvement of Thaksin and Surakiart, when he was foreign minister.

He will then ask the Office of Attorney-General (OAG) to launch an investigation similar to its probe into the CTX explosives-detection device accusations two years ago, which also involved international trade.

Alongkorn said three major deals in the BMA-Steyr contract proceeded and were approved without mandatory examination by the OAG: the agreement of understanding, signed in July 2003; the purchase contract between both parties, signed in August 2003; and the counter-trade deal

between Thailand and Austria, signed in September 2003.

The DSI earlier submitted an 11,000-page report into the fire-truck purchase contract to the National Counter Corruption Commission.

The DSI indictment accuses seven people of malfeasance under an anti-corruption law.

Each could face prison terms of between one and 20 years.

The indictment said: "Their acts have resulted in a purchase being made in excess of a budget allocation and in violation of two Cabinet decisions, thus causing the state to needlessly waste Bt1.3 billion in tariff burdens and to pay an inflated price of Bt3 billion to Bt5 billion."

Meanwhile, Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin said a book by the BMA clarifying the fire-engine purchase contract would be made public this week.

He also cautioned Thai Rak Thai Party spokesman Sita Dhivari over possible liability for libel for his planned publication of "black-cover books" that would reveal the identity of a person he said earned about Bt2 billion for opening a letter of credit with Steyr.

Deputy Bangkok Governor Wallop Suwandee said the fire service and rescue operations in Bangkok would be affected if the BMA did not accept 179 fire-engines already supplied by Steyr.

He said the BMA had not decided whether it would scrap the entire purchase with Steyr, which involves the production of another 139 fire-engines and 30 fire-boats.