A joint statement by Steyr and Austrian bank Raiffeisen Zentrabank tomorrow to Krung Thai Bank will reveal if they agree for more delay in the payment.

Apirak said he had assigned his deputy Panich Wikitset to urgently secure the money for immediate payment, should it become necessary.

Apirak said he was not officially informed that a second batch of fire trucks and related equipment had been delivered to Thailand, and that he would decide later on what the BMA would do with the items.

The BMA has received the first 176 fire trucks, of 350 in total, made by Steyr but had not used them following a corruption scandal involving many national politicians, including Apirak himself, and his predecessor Samak Sundaravej.

An Assets Examination Committee investigation is under way to find out whether each vehicle in the entire Bt6.7-billion deal was highly overpriced.

A BMA source said the vehicles and equipment were now at Lam Chabang, at A5 Pier. They include 67 trucks equipped with water guns, 72 water trucks, 15 fireboats, 1,440 sets of individual firefighting suits, and a large number of fire extinguishers.

Democrat Party deputy spokesman Yuttapong Charas-sathien said Apirak should not pay the money and wait for the report of the AEC probe. He said the payment would only cause adverse consequences for the state authorities.

Mayuree     Sukyingcharoenwong

The Nation