The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the parliament on Monday has recommended suspension of General Manager (GM) of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) Sugat Ratna Kansakar and Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Krishna Prasad Devkota for their involvement in corruption of Rs 4.3556 billion during procurement of two wide-body planes.
Endorsing the subcommittee’s report after some amendments on Monday, the PAC has instructed the report be implemented within a month.
The government has already formed a probe commission on Thursday to investigate the procurement process giving a 45-day deadline. The PAC has instructed the government and the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to implement the report before the commission submit its report. It has instructed the government to implement the recommendations and submit a report within a month.
The PAC points that secretary Devkota and GM Kansakar have to be suspended as they gave continuity to the process of procurement of old planes instead of investigating even after the Auditor General’s Report pointed that the procurement process was not in accordance to the laws.
It has also recommended investigation and action against former tourism secretary Shankar Adhikari and NAC board members involved in the procurement process.
The PAC meeting held at the Singha Durbar earlier endorsed the report after some amendments.
The subcommittee’s report made public on Wednesday concluded that Minister Adhikari was complicit in corruption of Rs 4.3556 billion during the procurement process. The subcommittee headed by NC lawmaker Rajan KC also found moral responsibility of Adhikari’s predecessors Jitendra Narayan Dev and Jeevan Bahadur Shahi in the case.
"This subcommittee recommends the PAC to instruct the government to punish Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari as per the prevailing laws as he instructed for payment of the final installment without investigation despite the 55th annual report of the Auditor General clearly stating that the procurement process is not in accordance to the laws; he claimed no payment was paid during his term and he formed a task force including officials from NAC to complete mere formality of probe and did not bring the facts to the fore despite expressing commitment in the august House to submit report after thorough probe; he seems to have connived with bad intentions to make the payment as he claimed he made payment of the final installment after informal consultation with Auditor General Tanka Mani Sharma but the Auditor General came and recorded with this subcommittee that Minister Adhikari provided false details and even mentioned that in the registered letter," the earlier report read.
The amended report now has assigned moral responsibility on Adhikari and his two predecessors, and demanded action against them in accordance to the laws.
The endorsed report has also removed the name of Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai. The subcommittee had earlier recommended suspension of Home Secretary 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."
Rai was found to have formed the subcommittee for procurement of new planes on April 14, 2016 and not those that have clocked 1,000 flight hours as the invitation for bids mentioned.
