Seven officials at the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) have been arrested for alleged corruption in fake repairs made to five buses at a cost of 2.8 million baht.

Their arrest followed the inspection of a repair garage on Wednesday morning by senior officials.

The garage in Saphan Sung district had supposedly made repairs to five BMA buses.

The seven officials in the sports division of the BMA culture, sports and tourism department were arrested.

Six of them surrendered to police at the Thai-Japanese Stadium in Din Daeng district of Bangkok and the other one was arrested in front of his house.

The arrests came after the State Audit Office (SAO) found alleged irregularities in the repair of five air-conditioned buses operated by the sports division of the BMA.

It examined financial documents the agency had submitted for repairs it claimed were made to the five vehicles between 2022 and 2024, but the buses had not been sent for repair 11 times.

The seven officials had allegedly falsified documents for the repairs. 

The investigation found 17 more fake repairs, bringing the total to 28 and, the losses to the city at 2.79 million baht.

Police said an eighth official was involved but he shot himself to death early this year.