Army to probe gas mask project

The army has asked police to probe alleged irregularities in a certificate granted to its 3.8-million-baht gas mask project, which has raised concerns over their safety in the field.

“We want the work to meet appropriate standards, but a check found many flaws in the document,” said Maj Gen Saksit Chueasombun, chief of the Royal Thai Army Research and Development Office, as he petitioned the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) to conduct the investigation yesterday.

The certificate was issued to prove the accuracy of the work at the facility, but Maj Gen Saksit said he had concerns over whether the assessment had been carried out in an appropriate fashion.

When these doubts arose, he said his office had put the brakes on the research.

It is a similar process to that which grants industrial certificates of quality on products, Maj Gen Saksit said.

The army always adheres to the results of these inspections as “the people who use the products must be guaranteed safety”, he added.

The gas mask research, which is financed by the Office of Higher Education Commission, is aimed to ensure soldiers receive effective equipment to protect them against chemical and biological substances during military operations.

The research begun last year when a team of five researchers, including two army experts, began development of the masks. Their work, which initially had an 18-month time frame, was near completion when the irregularities emerged.

This caused Maj Gen Saksit to suspend the project, which had also been designed to meet another government target of utilizing more locally produced rubber to prop up its faltering price. Up to 50,000 pieces of rubber were to be acquired using a budget of 150 million baht to make gas masks, according to the plan.

However, Maj Gen Sakrit said his office is duty-bound to put the project on hold as the results of the research needed to be independently verified.

The CSD has been tasked with looking into whether these suspicions of falsification are correct and investigate whether any members of the study team were complicit.

Pol Col Thongchai Yukasem, head of the CSD’s subdivision 1, said investigators are examining the certificate and evidence provided by Maj Gen Sakrit.