“No. I have not approved it,” Aswin said yesterday. “As soon as I saw the price in the proposal, I rejected it.

“Had it been around Bt170 or Bt180, I might have agreed to consider it and looked into the detail. But after I saw the price, I flatly said ‘no’. So, I didn’t even know the details yet,” Aswin said.

He spoke up after some reports suggested that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) was planning to spend Bt50.8 million on the polo shirts through special means.

Aswin said he immediately made the decision to turn down the proposal on Monday.

He said his disapproval had nothing to do with Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s complaints that his name should have not been used for any project the BMA was going to approve.

The Isra News Agency reported recently that the BMA’s Finance Department was preparing the purchase polo shirts with an embossed emblem for officials because Prayut questioned, during his work trip to a flood-hit area on May 29, why BMA officials’ outfits did not show the emblem of their agency.

Prayut later said he did not remember making such a comment.

Isra News Agency yesterday quoted Yuthapan Meechai, secretary to the Bangkok governor, as saying that a BMA official might have misinterpreted Prayut’s words and caused a misunderstanding.