The Ministry of Home Affairs had called for a tender in July 2009, with the condition that 30 Land Rover vehicles should be imported to Nepal within four months. Nine months had passed since the tender was accepted, but not all the vehicles were available.

On the one hand, the imported vehicles were used without being checked, while five were not brought at all. Doubts were also raised because the ‘condition’ of the purchased vehicles or whether they were in accordance with the conditions set out in the tender invitation were not checked.

Suspicions were further heightened when Hiramani Bhandari, the then Director General of the Central Services Department, made it public that the vehicles could not be checked because the relevant engineer had gone to Japan for training. At that time, the government had decided to allow concessional vehicles under the MP facility. The MPs, however, were wondering how they could purchase their own vehicles.

After controversial information emerged about the vehicles procured by the Ministry of Home Affairs for employees and ministers, the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament took statements from the Home Secretary and the Director General of the Central Services Department on Chaitra 21, 2052. The Accounts Committee had asked for documents on the procurement process. However, they were informed that the documents related to the vehicle purchase had been submitted to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority. The statement that the documents were submitted to the Authority had further angered the MPs of the Accounts Committee.

The Accounts Committee had taken statements from the then Home Secretary Padam Prasad Pokharel and Director General of the Services Department Bhandari. During the statements, there was an argument between the members of the Accounts Committee and Home Secretary Pokharel. After the tendered vehicle did not arrive, the ministers were provided with a rented vehicle. The then Chairman of the Accounts Committee Hridayesh Tripathi had questioned the non-provision of the documents. In response, Home Secretary Pokharel had said that he had no intention of not submitting the documents but had sent them there because the Authority had asked for them. The Commission had requested an investigation into the vehicle purchase process on Chaitra 8, but a letter with the documents was sent only on the 20th.

Committee member Deep Kumar Upadhyay had said that he was trying to cover up the matter. Committee Chairman Tripathi, however, had said that he would also obtain written information from the vehicle manufacturing company and the import company. The Home Ministry was also unable to give a clear answer to the controversy that had arisen since the purchase of the vehicle. Some MPs questioned whether it was not shown that the old vehicle was painted and imported as a new one. Pokharel, on the other hand, said that no complaints were made about the vehicle.

The main suspicion was that the vehicle had not been inspected. The price of each vehicle was 1.1 million. Director General Bhandari had said, ‘The engineer who inspected the vehicle had gone to Japan for a two-month training. After completing the training, he sent a letter saying that he had back pain and is now staying in Japan.’ Committee member Birodh Khatiwada objected while responding to that, expressing his objection, saying who would take responsibility for the purchase of vehicles worth crores? What kind of vehicles are they, what kind of tradition is it that they do not even inspect them.

In the meeting, it was seen that the MPs spent more time on the vehicle catalog than discussing how to make good use of the concession given by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to bring vehicles. The MPs were also focused on that. Committee member Bamdev Gautam was also looking at the ‘catalog’ with great attention. In the meeting, it was decided to send a member from the committee to form a high-level committee to recover the excess amount of government offices that have been in existence for three years. After long discussions between the ruling and opposition parties, it was decided to send Birodh Khatiwada to the committee. The chairman of the committee, which was to be formed by the Ministry of Finance through correspondence, was made a member of the Accounts Committee. The committee members were the Finance Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, the Auditor General, the Inspector General of Accounts, and a member-secretary designated by the government.