The process of the driver's license trial center, which was supposed to be opened in Balaju, has been stalled for two months. The process has not been able to move forward after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority seized documents related to the trial center.

According to businessmen participating in the competition, the procurement process was completely stalled after the CIAA seized all the original documents related to the tender from the Balaju Transport Management Office on 21st Poush.

The problem arose due to the delay in the decision-making process by the CIAA at a time when the Bagmati Province government was working to systematize the practical examination of the license and end the syndicate by adding a new center. The Balaju Transport Management Office had called for sealed bids on November 26, 2082, to rent the necessary space and vehicles for the written and practical examination of the driving license.

Various organizations had already submitted proposals in that process. However, Bagmati Province's Minister of Labor, Employment and Transport Jayaram Thapa had directed to suspend the bidding process for the time being through a letter on December 9th. Implementing the minister's decision, the office had issued a notice to suspend the related process from 1 pm on December 13th.

On a writ petition filed against it in the Patan High Court, the court had held that Minister Thapa's decision to suspend the said decision was not in good faith. The court had issued an interim order on 14th Poush asking not to immediately implement the decision to stop the bidding process started by the Balaju Transport Management Office under the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Transport to rent a trial center for practical driving license tests. 

A single bench of Justice Somkant Mainali had ordered not to implement the decision to suspend the bidding on the instructions of Minister of Labor, Employment and Transport Thapa, and to keep the status quo until the final decision of the writ. The bench of Justice Mainali issued an interim order in the name of the opponent as the decision of Minister Thapa and the instructions were not in good faith and from the perspective of a balance of convenience.

Although the court issued an interim order not to stop the tender process, the tender process of the Balaju Office under the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Transport of Bagmati Province has been in confusion after the Authority took control of the file and stopped it for months. Although the court stopped the minister's malicious interference, the authority has not been able to move forward with further work as it has kept the original file for two months. This will hinder the ability of the trial center, which is being run by only a limited number of entrepreneurs, to become competitive, said an employee of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Transport of Bagmati Province.

Service recipients are often inconvenienced when only a limited number of people run trial centers in the Kathmandu Valley. They are forced to stand in line and take the trial. A service recipient said that the trial time is faster when there are many trial centers. Currently, there are only trial centers in Chabahil, Thulobharyang, Ekantakuna and Radheradhe in the Kathmandu Valley. Minister Thapa had written to the Transport Management Office Balaju on 9th Poush with a seven-point instruction on his letterhead, expressing an unnatural interest in the procurement process of the trial center, to postpone the notification.

Vision Driving Academy had filed a writ petition in the High Court on 13th Poush against the decision of the office to postpone the notification as per the instruction. Hearing the writ petition, which named four bodies, including the Chief Minister's Office and the Council of Ministers, as defendants, the bench of Justice Mainali issued the interim order.

Even before the CIAA raid, the operators of the old trial centers in Kathmandu threatened him, said businessman Dambar Bahadur Thapa, who participated in the procurement process of the trial center. "The syndicate owners had already been saying that the CIAA was filing a file and that their tender would not be accepted," Thapa said. "The coincidence of the steps of the constitutional body and the prior notice of the syndicate operators has led to the impression that the CIAA was not used to maintain the syndicate."

According to Section 67 (a) of the Public Procurement Act, 2063 (point added by the first amendment), the authorized body shall, in relation to the procurement process being carried out by a public body, extract any documents for the purpose of investigating in accordance with this Act or the prevailing law, as far as possible, without hindering the progress of the procurement process. But in Balaju's case, neither the tender has been approved nor has any alternative process been able to proceed after the CIAA took the file.

Sunita Gajurel, spokesperson for the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Transport under Bagmati Province, said that no further information has been received after submitting a written response to the Patan High Court in December. 'We had submitted the written response of the ministry, secretary and minister to the court,' she said, 'After that, there has been no further update on this, this issue has not even been raised in the ministry, it may be because of the election, it has been more than three weeks since the trial center was raised.'

Meanwhile, an official of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority said that an investigation is underway into the matter. 'The CIAA has sent a letter to the Bagmati Province government to provide details about the working procedures and guidelines regarding the opening of the trial center,' the official said, 'The letter was sent last Thursday. After receiving the response to the letter, preparations are underway to issue guidelines and guidelines for opening a trial center and provide suggestions and instructions on matters such as managing a certain distance (km).' The official informed that a letter with instructions will be sent to the Bagmati Province government after the election.