The report of the subcommittee under the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the parliament about procurement of two wide-body planes by the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) will be corrected after Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai is found to be innocent.
The subcommittee had recommended suspension of Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai, who was tourism secretary and ex officio chairman of the NAC board from February 1, 2016 to September 12, 2016, concluding that he had initiated the procurement process violating the NAC bylaws.
"The documents provided to us by the NAC said the decision to initiate the procurement process was taken during his term," a member who was in the subcommittee told Setopati. "Now we know that he had taken a decision to form a subcommittee for procurement of new planes."
Lawmakers Aman Lal Modi, Surya Pathak and Bishal Bhattarai had proposed amendment of the report during the PAC meeting on Friday stating that innocent persons should not be mentioned as guilty. They also met subcommittee coordinator Rajan KC and PAC Chairman Bharat Kumar Shah separately, and asked about secretary Rai.
The decisions Rai took as tourism secretary were reviewed after that. Rai was found to have formed the subcommittee for procurement of new planes on April 14, 2016.
PAC Secretary Roj Nath Pandey told Setopati that the report will be amended as per PAC chairman's instruction as Rai took the decision to procure new planes and not those that have clocked 1,000 flight hours as the invitation for bids mentioned.
The PAC has already taken a decision to make some amendments in language of the report.
