By Hathai Techakitteranun
The dpa
BANGKOK — Bangkok authorities said on Thursday they are repairing 176 Austrian fire trucks that had been kept in storage during a 10-year legal dispute over the purchase price.
Sold to Thailand in 2006 by Austrian manufacturer Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug, the fire trucks remained unused for 10 years due to a dispute over corruption allegations involving a 50-per-cent hike in the purchase price.
In 2013, two former officials in Thailand were sentenced to 10 years in jail for inflating the price the government had to pay the Austrian company.
It took the Thai authorities until August 2016 to finally approve removing the trucks from the warehouse, where they have been for the past decade.
A study found the cost of repair to be about only 10 per cent of the actual purchase, making it cheaper to use the trucks than keep them in storage, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Bangkok Metropolitan Administration Jakkapan Phiewngam told dpa.
Approximately eight trucks have been found to be beyond repair so far, Jakkapan said, adding that apart from required maintenance, some of the trucks were damaged in Bangkok’s massive flooding in 2011.
Bangkok authorities expect 71 repaired trucks to be up and running by the end of October.
Last year, the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration based in Geneva ordered the Austrian manufacturer to pay 820 million baht (23.5 million dollars) in compensation to Bangkok City Hall.
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