The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case against Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini and eight others in procurement of the National Payment Gateway system.
The CIAA has lodged the corruption case in the Special Court against the then executive director of the National Information Technology Center (NITC) Sanjay Sharma, the then executive director of NITC Pranita Upadhyaya, the then deputy director of NITC and current managing director of Nepal Telecom Sunil Paudel, current deputy director of NITC Safal Shrestha, the then chief of the Budget and Program Division of the Finance Ministry and current Industry Secretary Marasini, the then assistant director of NITC Ramesh Prasad Pokharel, the then account officers of NITC Nim Bahadur Oli and Ram Bahadur Budha, and computer engineer with NITC Ram Sharan Gayak.
The CIAA has accused the then chief of the Budget and Program Division of the Finance Ministry Marasini of allocating budget for procurement of equipment for National Payment Gateway without completing the necessary stages for budget allocation even though that was not included in the policies and programs. The constitutional anti-graft body has also claimed that procurement worth Rs 250 million was made without including necessary documents related to preparations.
The CIAA has sought claims of Rs 232.75 million and imprisonment of Sharma Upadhyaya, Paudel, Budha, Pokharel, Gayak and Marasini, and claims of Rs 1.79 million from Shrestha.
