KATHMANDU, JUNE 28

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority today filed a charge-sheet at the Special Court against five persons, including the chief administrative officer of Omsatiya Rural Municipality, Rupanedhi, for their alleged involvement in corruption on the pretext of carrying out development activities.

Those sued by the anti-graft body are CAO of the rural municipality Raju Nepal, engineer Lavkush Chai, sub-engineer Santosh Bhusal and office-bearers of road construction users' group Chairperson Gajaraj Yadav and Secretary Dharmaraj Kharbind.

According to a press release issued by the CIAA, they had colluded to embezzle around Rs 2.61 million in the course of constructing a main road in Ward No 4 of the rural municipality by using Plain Cement Concrete through the users' group last fiscal.

The CIAA had launched wide-ranging investigation into the case after it received a corruption complaint. During the probe, it was found that the engineer and sub-engineer prepared a measurement book showing that more work had been accomplished than the actual work done while carrying out PCC on the road and that the CAO had approved the measurement book without confirming the quantity and quality of construction works. The thickness of PCC was less than what was mentioned in the cost estimate and design.

Similarly, the office-bearers of the users' group had claimed that the payment for construction of the road was in line with the measurement book prepared by the engineer and sub-engineers, and approved by the CAO.

As per the anti-graft body, the CAO had sanctioned the payment even for the work they had never carried out. They had also overvalued the construction work. As per the CIAA, the defendants had worked in collusion to embezzle state funds meant for development activities in the local level.

Each defendant has been charged under section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2002, seeking maximum punishment under the law along with recovery of the amount in question from each.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 29, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.