The National Anti Corruption Commission (NACC) said it has interrogated more than half of the witnesses involved in buying GT 200 and Alpha 6 so-called explosive detectors for 13 state agencies.
"The commission will be able to identify the suspects for the case within two months," NACC member Wichai Wiwitsewee told reporters on Wednesday.
The GT 200 (above) and Alpha 6 devices came with impressive instructions and many types of add-ons, none of which ever detected an explosive or a drug. (Bangkok Post file photo)
Regarding the conviction in a British court Tuesday of Jim McCormick, the owner of Comstrac Co Ltd, the company that made and sold the detectors, the NACC will not request any evidence from British authorities.
Doing so would delay the investigation, he said.
Mr Wichai said the guilty verdict against McCormick might be useful later.
Pongin Intarakhao, chief of the security crimes division of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), said the government procurement involved four possibily illegal acts - fraud, document forgery, price collusion and inflated price.
Concerning McCormick's conviction, he said the department has met with British investigators twice. The team assured him that the DSI will be provided with the witness list for the case if needed.
McCormick was convicted on Tuesday on three counts of fraud in selling fake bomb detectors to Iraq and other countries, including Thailand.
The Briton made an estimated £50 million (2.2 billion baht) from sales of his three models to customers that included Iraq, Belgium and the United Nations for use in Lebanon.
The man was bailed until his sentencing on May 2.
According to the DSI, Comstrac Co Ltd set up two companies with three subsidiaries, which sold 1,358 units for around 1.137 billion baht to 13 state agencies.
In Thailand, the GT200 devices were first put to use in 2009 in Sungai Kolok district in Narathiwat and Kok Pho district in Pattani.
Bomb blasts continued to occur in these areas causing many deaths and injuries, after the devices failed to register the presence of explosives.