Kathmandu, October 3

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has stepped up its vigilance to check corruption in government-run projects, including 22 national pride projects.

Speaking at a meeting of the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives, Chief Commissioner of CIAA Nabin Kumar Ghimire said the anti-graft body would help the government check irregularities in projects.  Ghimire told the panel that the CIAA had held a meeting with concerned government officials, including Chief Secretary Lok Darshan Regmi, Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Madhu Sudan Adhikari and Director General of the Department of Roads Rabindra Nath Shrestha  to discuss whether quality was maintained in projects.

Ghimire said he had directed the government officials to keep information of the contractors, their capacity, human resources, equipment and projects they were undertaking.  “We will investigate into different projects and not allow any wrongdoing. The aim is to support the government’s objectives without any prejudice,” he said.

There is also a tendency among rival contractors to lodge complaint against the government, thereby stalling projects. On Friday, the CIAA had directed Chief Secretary Regmi to amend the Public Procurement Act to address this shortcoming.  Ghimire said conflicts between chiefs and deputy chiefs of local levels had also given rise to corrupt practices. “We are receiving reports that the office bearers of the local levels are buying excavators and awarding contracts to their kin misusing their power,” said Ghimire adding that the bureaucracy was harbouring unfounded fear of CIAA action.

“Corrupt officials have changed their modus operandi to avoid being caught by the CIAA and we have also changed our modes to nab them,” he added.  The CIAA has a 15-member intelligence team lead by the chief commissioner.  “We arrest the corrupt officers only when we have enough evidence to prove their culpability,” Ghimire said, adding that the CIAA recently arrested a divisional engineer from Bhairahawa and found that he had amassed three crore rupees worth illegal property.

Ghimire said corruption was rampant in land revenue offices, transport offices, survey offices and district administration offices.  The CIAA recently arrested 15 employees from these offices in Nepalgunj and eight in Birgunj. Nepal ranks 122nd on the corruption index in the world.