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Nepal's anti-graft agency, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), filed a corruption case against 16 individuals, including the Member Secretary of Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), on Sunday.
The anti-graft agency booked Milan Kumar Thapa and 15 others as defendants in a case registered at the Special Court regarding procurement irregularities related to the electric crematorium project. According to CIAA, the accused colluded to embezzle over NRs 103.3 million by deliberately inflating costs and violating public procurement rules in the purchase and installation of cremation machines at the electric crematorium located at Pashupati, Aryaghat. "The CIAA's investigation has found out that PADT, under Thapa's leadership, hired a consultancy firm lacking relevant experience and accepted falsified quotations to prepare a rigged technical proposal and cost estimate. The report submitted by the consultant was incomplete and based on fictitious data, yet was approved and used to initiate procurement without due diligence," Yagya Regmi, spokesperson at the anti-graft agency, confirmed ANI over the phone. In the charge sheet filed by CIAA, it is claimed that the PADT officials and two companies, Apple Engineering Professional Consultancy Pvt Ltd and Map Entrepreneurs Pvt Ltd, manipulated procurement procedures for personal gain, causing significant financial damage to the state. The cremation machines, reportedly worth only around INR3.25 million (approximately NRs 5.2 million), were shown to cost over NRs 15.2 million in the project documents. Advance payments totalling NRs 18.2 million were made to Map Entrepreneurs without ensuring the machines met contractual specifications. The equipment installed was later found to be of substandard quality, failed to function properly, and remains non-operational. CIAA further stated that the contract process was carried out without confirming a suitable installation site, and important procurement conditions were amended without a valid reason to favour a specific bidder. In addition, the project's Terms of Reference were designed to exclude genuine competition by setting unusually high experience requirements. According to the charge sheet, despite repeated technical failures and the expiry of the contract and advance payment guarantees (APG), the responsible officials took no legal or financial recovery action. Furthermore, individuals unrelated to the project were sent abroad under the pretext of study visits using project funds. "The accused caused financial harm amounting to Rs103.39 million to PADT by misusing their authority in violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2002," the CIAA stated. Among those charged are former PADT member secretary Raju Kumar Khatri and former executive director Ghanashyam Khatiwada. Likewise, incumbent deputy director Sitaram Risel, engineers Pashupati Thakur, Denis Upreti, Ramesh Puri; account officer Chandra Prasad Khanal; associate professor Yubaraj Adhikari; legal advisor Lain Bahadur Thapa; and Manoj Puri and Yadunandan Bhattarai of the Map Entrepreneurs Pvt Ltd and Suraj Chapagain of Apple Engineering Professional Consultancy Pvt Ltd have also been chargesheeted in the case. The CIAA has demanded legal penalties against all individuals and entities involved. (ANI)
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