KATHMANDU, MAY 21
The Public Account Committee decided today to send the report on the construction of Pokhara International Airport (PIA) to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) after ensuring its linguistic accuracy.
The subcommittee, led by lawmaker Rajendra Lingden, claimed that there were approximately 10 billion rupees in irregularities during the construction of PIA.
Chairperson Rishikesh Pokharel stated that the committee has decided to forward the report to the authority for further investigation and action against those responsible.
"The committee has directed the CIAA to investigate the contents of the report and the concerns raised about the airport," Pokharel stated.
However, CPN-UML lawmakers raised the report's issue, stating that the concerned individuals should be called back to the committee for further discussion. However, MPs from other parties insisted on sending the report to the Authority in its current form.
Subcommittee coordinator Rajendra Lingden stated that if the committee did not submit the report to the Authority, he would.
Lingden took to Facebook today after the Public Accounts Committee meeting to announce that it has decided to pass the much-discussed PIA Study Monitoring Subcommittee report after making some linguistic changes and sending it to the Authority for further action.
He also shared the key findings of the report. In his post, he outlined four findings, including: 1) Irregularities and corruption at the start of the contract process. 2) Financial and technical irregularities occurred during the construction process. 3) Inconsistencies in the tax exemption of Rs 2.224 billion for the contract agreement; and 4) A comprehensive study and investigation into all types of irregularities should be conducted from the start of the PIA construction process to the present, and all those involved in irregularities and corruption should be held accountable.
Meanwhile, Gokul Baskota, a CPN-UML legislator and committee member, stated that the Accounts Committee's PIA probe Subcommittee report is incomplete.
"It's not a different opinion. It's a supplementary opinion. Hard work has been put into the report, but there is something missing," Baskota said, adding, "But rather than finding out what's there, we need to find out what's missing."
Similarly, another CPN-UML lawmaker, Yogesh Bhattarai, raised concerns about how flights are operated at PIA, which a parliamentary subcommittee discovered to have a serious technical flaw.
Bhattarai stated, "It has been added to the list of actions without any investigation. It has been claimed that it has significant technical flaws. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) certifies the airport's technical aspects. How can ICAO cancel the PIA's airworthiness certification, and how can the subcommittee claim that it is technically flawed?"
Inaugurated in 2023, the PIA has been built with a 20-year loan from the state-owned Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of China. Moreover, the construction was overtaken by China CAMC Engineering, the construction subsidiary of a state-owned conglomerate, Sinomach.
In their report, the parliamentary subcommittee led by Lawmaker Rajendra Lingden claimed corruption amounting to a whopping RS 14 billion in the PIA, and grave engineering flaws and safety concerns were also exhumed.
On the other hand, China CAMC Engineering Company Limited, a Chinese government contractor, has described the report prepared by a sub-committee as a 'wrong report' with numerous factual errors.
On Tuesday, the contractor company challenged the sub committee's report by issuing a statement titled 'About False Reports Related to the PIA.' CAMCE has stated that it is taking the matter seriously, requesting that government agencies investigate the unauthorised publication of the report, which has yet to be made public, in order to clarify the false content and reveal the truth about the incident.
China CAMC has stated that its company is a professional and responsible international engineering contractor that strictly adhered to all of the Government of Nepal's legal and regulatory requirements during the bidding, contract, and implementation stages of the Pokhara Regional International Airport project.
"We have fulfilled all of our obligations under the contract documents and implementation agreements signed with all parties, and we have kept complete records of these processes," the company stated.
The tax exemption was implemented with the signatures of the governments of the two countries and in accordance with international standards.
