KATHMANDU, APRIL 16

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a corruption case against nine people, including Executive Director of Security Printing Centre Bikal Paudel, at the Special Court accusing them of embezzling millions of rupees in the procurement of electrical infrastructure for security printing.

Other defendants include Senior Divisional Engineer (Mechanical) of Ministry of Forest and Environment Nabin Kumar Pokharel, Assistant Director of National Information Technology Centre Ramesh Prasad Pokharel, Section Officer of National Inclusion Commission Manikman Maharjan, Section Officer of Kathmandu District Coordination Committee Shirish Upadhyay, retired Account Officer Ram Bahadur Budha, Managing Director of Engineering Marketing Concern Pvt Ltd Rohitman Pradhan, Director of Meptech Building Services Pvt Ltd Bhuwan Maharjan and Director of Bastushilp Associates Mitra Lal Gurau. The defendants are accused of embezzling government money.

According to a press release issued by the CIAA, the defendants embezzled government money in two projects - Turnkey design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of electrical, power, and electromechanical infrastructure for high security printing facility and the second project was design, supply, construction, installation, testing and commissioning of underground bulk fuel storage for high security printing facility.

The projects were implemented at IT Park based in Panauti Municipality, Kavreplanchok. The estimated cost of the first and second contract was Rs 487,061,974 and Rs 202,002,423 respectively. A total of Rs 487,061,973 was paid to the contractor of the first project and Rs 196,245,909 to the contractor of the second project.

The projects were completed on 22 October 2019.

The CIAA accused the defendants of preparing and endorsing wrong cost estimates, accepting substandard electric transformers, accepting generators from a country which was not mentioned in the contract, making advance payment in violation of rules and buying bulk fuel tank system which was not needed.

The CIAA accused Bikal Paudel of embezzling Rs 690,881,854. It accused Nabin Kumar Pokharel and Ramesh Prasad Pokharel of embezzling Rs 494,635,945 and Rs 203,893,827 respectively. The CIAA accused Ramesh Man Maharjan of embezzling Rs 34,468,729. The anti-graft body accused Ram Bahadur Budha and Shirish Upadhyay of embezzling Rs 198,894,289 and Rs 400,139,736 respectively. It accused Rohit Man Pradhan and Bhuwan Maharjan of embezzling Rs 234,496,921 and Rs 435,742,368 respectively. The CIAA accused Mitra Lal Gurau of embezzling Rs 869,097.

If convicted, the defendants will face jail term and they will also have to pay fines equal to the embezzled amount.

The anti-graft body has also sought attachment of moveable and immoveable properties of Meptech Building Services Pvt Ltd, Bastushilpa Associates, and Engineering Marketing Concern Pvt Ltd for the recovery of embezzled money and fines.

The CIAA said that it did not deem necessary to indict other suspects Hariballav Ghimire, Dhirendra Paudel, Narayan Adhikari, Mahendra Prasad Sankhi, Thama Narayan Sharma, Khadak Bahadur Thapa, Diwakar Luitel, and Prahalad Bhandari.

Bikal Paudel, Navin Kumar Pokharel, Ram Bahadur Budha, Santosh Timilsina (law Officer, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology) Amrit Shahi (Civil Engineer, Industrial Sector Management Committee), and Manikman Maharjan were members of the tender evaluation committee.

The CIAA inspection team had found there was no power supply in Turnkey Power System and generator and transformer had not been installed. The team also found that the fuel tank had been set up underground and it had been connected with day tank. The CIAA said that the transformer was substandard and as a result the government lost Rs 34,468,729. According to the charge sheet, generator sets were imported from Russia which was against the contract as it did not mention Russia as the country of origin for the equipment. The CIAA said that the contract document stated the country of origin as Spain/UK.