Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered a probe into whether stickers for the Line text messaging application to promote the government's 12 core values were overpriced.
Gen Prayut said yesterday his officials were investigating whether the 7.1 million baht cost of the Line sticker campaign was "unusually high" and whether the project was worthwhile.
"When there is a suspicion of corruption, even in just a small project, a probe must be conducted," the premier said.
The investigation comes after president of the Stop Global Warming Association Srisuwan Janya last week lodged a complaint with Pol Col Ittipol Kijsuwan, assistant to the National Anti-Corruption Commission's (NACC) secretary-general.
He called on the agency to investigate the government's spending on the animated stickers that promote the junta's so-called 12 values for Thais.
Mr Srisuwan also asked the NACC to look into the median price to produce the stickers, which are sent with chat messages via mobile phones and computers. He said it appeared unusually high.
He said the median price for making the stickers was set at 7,117,353 baht, but the government had not disclosed how this figure was calculated.
The government has said it invited eight companies to propose a price but only one responded.
Earlier, Information and Communication Technology Minister Pornchai Rujiprapa insisted the cost of the Line stickers was lower than the market norm of 7.8 million baht.