KATHMANDU, MAY 18
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a chargesheet against eight persons, including former chief administrative officer of Simraungarh Municipality, at the Special Court for allegedly embezzling state funds.
Among those sued by the anti-graft body are: former CAO Hariom Prasad Jaiswal, account officer Sarmendra Prasad Chaudhary, engineer Ajit Kumar Gupta, assistant sub-engineer Dinesh Kumar and officials of local users' committee.
According to the CIAA, they had embezzled Rs 1 million on the pretext of gravelling a road in ward 9 of the municipality without carrying out the prescribed construction work procedure during the fiscal 2021-2022.
The CIAA had launched a wide-ranging investigation into the case after it received a corruption complaint. During the probe, it was found that municipality employees had prepared a measurement book showing that more work had been accomplished than the actual work in the construction and that the CAO had approved the measurement book without confirming the quantity and quality of construction works.
Similarly, the office-bearers of the users' group had claimed that payment for purported construction works in line with the fake measurement book was prepared by the engineer and sub-engineers, and approved by the CAO. As per the anti-graft body, the CAO had sanctioned the payment even for work they had never carried out. They had also overvalued the work. Each defendant has been charged under section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2002, seeking maximum punishment under the law along with recovery of the amount in question from each.
A version of this article appears in the print on May 19, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
