Kathmandu, January 12
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a chargesheet at the Special Court against seven persons, including the chief administrative officer of Balawa Municipality, Mahottari, for their alleged involvement in corruption on the pretext of carrying out development activities.
Those sued by the anti-graft body are CAO of the Municipality Balbir Thakur, sub-engineers Hiralal Mandal and Jeet Kumar Yadav, and chairperson of local users' committee Ram Sagar Kapadi Sudi and members Ramji Sahu Sudi, Ashok Kumar Panjiyar, and Nazbul Khatun.
According to a press release issued by the CIAA, they had colluded to embezzle around Rs 1.1 million in the course of constructing a road in the municipality by using the plain cement concrete and a Muslim Community Building through the users' group in the fiscal 2017- 18. The CIAA had launched wide-ranging investigation into the case after it received a corruption complaint. During the probe, it was found that the sub-engineers had prepared a measurement book mentioning that more work had been accomplished than the actual work done while carrying out the PCC on the road and that the CAO had approved the measurement book without confirming the quantity and quality of construction works. The thickness of the PCC was less than what was mentioned in the cost estimate and design.
Similarly, the office-bearers of the users' group had claimed that the payment for construction of the road was in line with the measurement book prepared by the sub-engineers, and approved by the CAO.
As per the anti-graft body, CAO Thakur had sanctioned the payment even for the work they had never carried out.
They had also overvalued the construction work. As per the CIAA, the defendants had worked in collusion to embezzle state funds meant for development activities at the local level.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 13, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
