KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 27

The Public Accounts Committee under the federal parliament has directed the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority to take action after conducting an investigation into the issue of the Telecommunications Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (TERAMOCS) purchase.

In a meeting held on Wednesday, the Committee requested the CIAA to provide details of the work progress within 30 days after studying the TERAMOCS purchase.

Committee Chairperson Rishikesh Pokharel stated that the Committee also instructed the government to immediately halt the process of implementing the TERAMOCS system. 'The meeting directed the government, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and Nepal Telecommunications Authority not to enforce the technology and not to make additional payments because enforcement cannot precede related law-making,' Pokharel mentioned.

During the October 13 meeting of the Public Accounts Committee, the Telecommunications Authority was asked to furnish all documents related to the purchase of TERAMOCS.

The study conducted after receiving the documents from the Telecommunications Authority, coupled with extensive discussions within the Committee, revealed that existing laws and policy-level arrangements were violated during the procurement of TERAMOCS.