The sub-committee formed under the leadership of Rajendra Lingden by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has concluded that there were irregularities and corruption in the construction of Pokhara International Airport.
The sub-committee has also recommended suspending officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), including Director General Pradeep Adhikari, who were involved in the project from the feasibility study to the completion of the airport's construction.
The sub-committee has recommended that the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and the Department of Money Laundering Investigation investigate chief of Pokhara International Airport Project Binesh Munakarmi, Director of National Pride Project Chand Mala Shrestha, project engineer Prabin Neupane, chief of administration Rajendra Prasad Paudel, CAAN Director and Engineer Baburam Paudel, and former directors general of CAAN Sanjeev Gautam and Rajan Pokharel for corruption and take maximum action against them.
The sub-committee has drawn a six-point conclusion after studying the construction of Pokhara International Airport. The first point mentions, "There were irregularities and corruption from the very beginning of the contract process."
The construction work of Pokhara Regional International Airport, built with a Chinese loan of approximately 22 billion rupees, was completed on December 29, 2022. Nepal has been struggling to repay the loan for the airport built by China's CAMC Engineering. According to the agreement, Nepal has to repay the loan at a 2 percent interest rate for seven years after the completion of the airport construction and then clear the principal in 26 installments over the next 13 years.
The sub-committee has termed it unnatural that while CAAN had estimated the cost of constructing the airport at US$ 145 million, the Chinese company proposed US$ 305 million as the lowest bid. The sub-committee’s report says that despite such a huge difference in cost estimation, CAAN and other decision-makers committed irregularities by approving the contract at US$ 215 million, adding US$ 70 million, through negotiations against public procurement laws.
According to the auditor general’s report, a new implementation agreement was signed with the wrong intention of granting tax exemptions by including Rs 2.22 billion in the Master List of CAAN, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, and the Ministry of Finance against the terms of the main agreement, the sub-committee has said in its report, calling it irregularity and policy-level corruption.
The sub-committee has also termed as irregularity the project's signing an agreement with a separate contractor and paying Rs 320 million for cutting 40 meters of Chhine Danda. According to the original agreement, all construction works should have been carried through contracts until the airport became fully operational, the sub-committee’s report says.
