A corruption case has been filed against five individuals, including the then executive director of the National Information Technology Center (NITC), Sunil Paudel.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed the corruption case against five individuals in the Special Court on Monday, according to CIAA spokesperson Rajendra Kumar Paudel.
Along with Paudel, the CIAA has also filed charges against Ramesh Prasad Pokharel, the then assistant director of NITC; Ram Sharan Gayak, the then computer engineer at NITC; Nim Bahadur Wali, the then accounting officer at NITC; Max International Pvt. Ltd., Putalisadak, Kathmandu, and the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Akbar Hussain.
The anti-corruption body has sought Rs 57.9 million in damages from each of five accused.
A complaint was lodged at the CIAA, alleging irregularities in the supply, delivery, installation, and commissioning of RISC and HCI servers by the NITC in the fiscal year 2018-19.
It was alleged that while the technical specifications of the main equipment procured matched the details available online, the purchase was made at a price higher than the online price list.
The NITC had prepared and submitted a cost estimate of Rs 262.95 million for this procurement.
Max International was found to have received payments of Rs 26.5 million (excluding VAT) under the heading "Training and One-time Installation and Configuration at GIDC and DRC,” and Rs 31.4 million (excluding VAT) under "Three-year Warranty With Onsite Support" on June 19, 2019.
The CIAA said that the accused had colluded to prepare the cost estimate for training, installation, and configuration of the servers in a conflict of interest, and had made and received payment for warranty with onsite support even though so such work was carried out as per the agreement, thereby committing corruption amounting to Rs 57.9 million.
It has been found that Sunil Paudel had deposited the embezzled amount in a Singapore bank account.
Max International had purchased the goods through Banctec Pte. Ltd. of Singapore. The CIAA further disclosed that Banctec, the supplying company, had deposited US$ 79,640 into Paudel’s account in United Overseas Bank (UOB) Singapore.
