KATHMANDU, AUGUST 9
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a chargesheet at the Special Court against 10 persons, including former chief administrative officer of Simraungadh Municipality, Bara, for alleged embezzlement of funds allocated for construction of a community building and birthing centre.
Those sued by the anti-graft body include former CAO of the municipality Birendra Kumar Sah, account officer Sarmenra Prasad Chaudhary, engineer Suresh Kumar Yadav and sub-engineer Upendra Kushwaha, and community building construction user committee office-bearers Sikendra Prasad Yadav, Vijay Kumar Yadav and Kavita Devi, and birthing centre construction user committee office-bearers Ramlochan Kanu, Chhathu Giri, and Anita Devi.
The CIAA had filed the chargesheet after conducting an investigation into a complaint lodged by Parlimantary Monitoring Special Committee of Madhes Province. According to the anti-graft body, the municipality officials had provided Rs 3.8 million to the user committees concerned without completion of the construction work of the community building and birthing centre in Ward No 3 of the municipality in contravention of the terms and conditions of the projects.
It was found that the amount was provided to the user committees on the basis of fake bills showing the components of construction work which were not performed.
The user committees of the community building and birthing centre had prepared fake bills and submitted them to the municipality in cahoots with the local level employees to share the embezzled funds among themselves.
Likewise, the municipality's engineer and sub-engineer had allowed the user committees to work in contravention of the cost estimates, terms and conditions, and specifications. During the probe, it was also found that the engineer and sub-engineer had prepared a measurement book showing that more work had been accomplished than the actual work in the construction of community building and birthing centre, and that the CAO had approved the measurement book without confirming the quantity and quality of construction works.
CAO Sah and other employees of the municipality sanctioned the amount despite knowing that the user committee had submitted fake bills to claim the payment.In the chargesheet, the CIAA has demanded that the court sentence them to jail along with recovery of Rs 3.8 million and a fine equivalent to the amount in question for the municipality employees under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2002. Similarly, jail sentence along with a fine of Rs 1.9 million have been sought from the office-bearers of the user committee.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 10, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
