The then two presidents of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority and the contractor company have been found guilty of corruption in the purchase of equipment and consulting services to install the Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) system. The special court convicted the two former chairmen of the authority, Digambar Jha and Purushottam Khanal, and contractors Numbera (M) SDN Berhad Malaysia, Namaste Global Communications Pvt Ltd Singapore and OSI Consulting Pvt Ltd (India) who worked in the joint venture.

The Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission filed a corruption case in the special court on 15th March 2080, making 19 persons including Jha and Khanal, along with the employees of the authority and the contractor company, accused of harming the state by purchasing equipment in collusion. With the filing of the case, more than a dozen high-ranking employees of the authority were suspended.

91 crore 98 lakh 30 thousand 882 rupees, after one year, the case filed by the authority was shelved and the Special Court found the contractor company and the two former presidents of the authority guilty and sentenced them to imprisonment and fine. Another 17 of those who were made defendants were acquitted by the Special Court saying that the claim was not sufficient. The court sentenced Jha and Khanal to one more month's imprisonment for violating the legal norms in the MDMS procurement process while serving as the president of the authority and causing financial loss to the government.

Authority employees Anandraj Khanal, Dipesh Acharya, Surendralal Hada, Meenprasad Aryal, Achutanand Mishra, Revathiram Panth, Sandeep Adhikari, Vinodchandra Shrestha, Suryaprasad Lamichhane, Pratishka Poudel, Vijaykumar Rai Yadav, Nirajan Koirala and others have been acquitted.

It is mentioned in the brief order of the court that they have fulfilled their official duties as decided by the responsible officials above them, they did not make any decision in their personal capacity and they only gave comments/reports according to the law and therefore cannot be held guilty. After being acquitted, the employees have returned to the office since Friday.

The authority filed a case against the authority for colluding with the authority's officers/employees and contractors for illegally purchasing equipment and consulting services and causing harm to the state. The bench of Special Committee Chairman Teknarayan Kunwar and members Ritendra Thapa and Vidur Koirala on Thursday closed the case and held that there were financial irregularities in collusion between the two officials and the contractor company.

It is mentioned in the special judgment that there was corruption of Rs. Jha and Khanal and the company (JV) that got the contract while they were the chairman of the authority have also been sentenced to a fine of 58 million 14 thousand begos and the same fine and 1 year and 1 month imprisonment. The court has also issued an order to recover the expenses incurred from the illegal contract.

The authority's investigation revealed that the company awarded the MDMS contract was a joint venture of Numbera (M) Sdn Berhad Malaysia, Namaste Global Communications Pvt Ltd Singapore and OSI Consulting Pvt Ltd India in collusion with authority officials. Among them, the chairman of the lead company Numbera, Datuk Mohd Noor Amin, aka Mohd Noo Amin bin Mohd Noor Khan, was found guilty on behalf of the company. He has been sentenced to fines, imprisonment and fines, just like the presidents of the authority.

It is mentioned in the special decision that the authority has proceeded with the master plan beggar Hachuva without conducting a feasibility study in the MDMS system procurement process. "Unnatural cost estimates and prices were approved and illegal decisions were made at the stage of implementation, with the intention of harming the government and benefiting others, and it was seen that the work was carried out in bad faith and in collusion from the beginning," said the verdict. The court held that since the

project was not completed for a long period of time, it cost the state crores of rupees and the government was in a state of non-achievement. It is the conclusion of the court that J  started the procurement process without preparing a master plan to implement the project, disregarding the ineligibility of the economic transactions of other companies affiliated to Numbera JV and qualified the JV and approved the letter of intent and increased the cost expenses by preparing an unnatural cost statement. 

It is mentioned in the judgment that while there was an opportunity to refuse the letter of intent accepted by JHA in bad faith, Khanal, the authority chairman after him, disregarded the ineligibility of other companies affiliated to the same JV and proceeded with the purchase process, causing benefit to the ineligible company and loss to the government. Similarly, in the case of Numbera, Namaste Global and OSI Digital (JV), it is mentioned in the judgment that in collusion with Jha and Khanal, they illegally received a payment of Rs.

A contractor working in a joint venture has been convicted as a fraud. Although Numera chairman Datuk Mohd Noor Amin was found guilty, the court acquitted Namaste Global director Kavindraraj Mall, Numera chief operating officer Anuj Singh and product specialist Jamil Ahmed.

The Authority had announced that the MDMS system had been put into operation on October 1, 2079 to control illegal mobile phones. Since then, the authority has repeatedly issued notices and warned that mobile phones brought from abroad and newly purchased must be registered in the system and if not, the phone will not work.

Such warnings are still confusing to the general public. But the authority has not given any information about the effect on the number of illegally imported mobile phones. Kantipur has repeatedly inquired about this, but the authority has refused to give any response.

Experts related to the telecommunication sector have been criticizing since the beginning that it seems that the system has been promoted without preparation, study and public discussion with the intention of purchasing MDMS and its related goods. Other projects of the authority are also controversial and under investigation. 

In order to find out the real details of illegal activities and revenue in the telecommunication sector, the authority brought corruption in the procurement process of the 'Teramax technology' that the authority was trying to implement. Although the head of the authority Prem Kumar Rai informed the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament last year that the investigation has reached its final stage, no decision has been taken yet.

The then presidents of the Authority, Digambar Jha and Purushottam Khanal, are also under investigation by the authority in the irregularities in the procurement of Teramox technology equipment. In the Teramox case, the Authority has taken statements from the then Communications Ministers Mohan Bahadur Basnet and Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, the then Communications Secretaries Vaikunth Aryal and Mahendraman Gurung, the then Joint Secretary of the Communications Ministry Vinod Prakash Singh and others.

The authority took the statement when Aryal was the chief secretary. He was suspended after a corruption case was filed in the liquor excise case. Later, after being cleared from the special post, he was sent to the National Planning Commission by creating a special post similar to the Chief Secretary, and he resigned after being cleared from the special. While the investigation of Teramox was going on, after completing the investigation of MDMS, the authority filed the case in the court.

The authority decided to implement the MDMS system in order to control the mobile phones imported illegally from abroad and to keep the details of the imported phones correct in the government records. For this, on October 10, 2074, the authority submitted a report with a draft of MDMS and prepared the basis for the purchase agreement. In the same year, the procurement process proposal was submitted on January 26, and on May 10, 2075, the authority's board of directors decided to proceed with the procurement contract.

On the 28th of the same month, when a letter of intent was requested for this, the then president Jha maneuvered to join the company he favored. At the time of the agreement, Jha had left the authority and had come to Khanal. Experts in telecommunication technology planned to develop software and implement data processing with the participation of 13 people including 6 foreign and 7 local people. According to the indictment of the authority, the staff and officials of the authority mentioned the cost estimate of 11 million 1176 thousand 73 dollars for the support service connectivity and software out of the estimated cost of 4 lakh 3 thousand 448 US dollars and according to that, they have been corrupt in the purchase of goods and services.