A corruption case has been filed against 32 including one ex-minister, two ex-secretaries and one sitting co-secretary for corruption in the purchase of two wide-body ships for the Airline Corporation by demanding one and a half billion rupees.

The Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission has demanded Rs 1 billion 47 crore 10 lakh 85 thousand 482 rupees against former minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, two former secretaries Shankar Prasad Adhikari and Shishir Kumar Dhungana, incumbent joint secretary Buddhisagar Lamichhane, former joint secretary Jeevan Prakash Sitaula, 24 Nepalis, six foreigners and two foreign aircraft supplier companies. A case was registered in a special court on Thursday.

Among the defendants are the Minister of Tourism and the Secretary of Tourism, officials and members/employees of the Board of Directors of the Airline Corporation and the contractor company and its representatives.

A complaint was filed with the Authority on 27 January 2073 regarding the purchase of an aircraft. 2 years after that, on 26 January 2075, the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives also instructed the Authority to investigate corruption in the Widebody case. The 55th and 56th annual reports of the Auditor General also pointed out that the aircraft procurement process was not legal. 

The accounting committee formed a sub-committee to investigate the procurement case and after finding facts and evidence of irregularities, it entrusted the investigation to the authority with a report. However, in this case, due to the pressure and influence of the authorities, a detailed investigation could not be done. Last year, after the investigation was carried out again by the Authority, the case was filed on Thursday by making political, administrative persons and contractors as defendants.

Against the defendants, the authority charged that the authority revised the purchase criteria in a 'malicious' manner during the purchase of ships for the corporation, made provisions to favor certain companies, paid more than the carrying capacity of the aircraft, recommended dollar facilities for payment without bank guarantee-security, etc. is. 

According to authority spokesperson Narahari Ghimire, the then minister Shahi, the general manager of the corporation Sugaratna Kansakar, the then tourism secretary officer, the former finance secretary Dhungana who was the director general of the customs department at the time of the purchase agreement, the current joint secretary of the tourism ministry and a member of the corporation's board of directors Budhisagar Lamichhane and another director were involved in the procurement case. Sitaula, a member of the committee and then Director General of the Money Laundering Investigation Department, has been made a defendant. Likewise, the then board members Teknath Acharya, Nima Nuru Sherpa, Muktiram Pandey, Achyutaraj Pahadi who were involved in the decision making process of the ship purchase are the defendants. 

Pahadi is currently a member of the board of directors of the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority. The then commercial director of the corporation Ramhari Sharma Sedhain, Janakraj Kalakheti who is currently the deputy general manager of the corporation, the then deputy director Prabhas Kumar Karmacharya, the then director Ganesh Bahadur Chand, the then commercial director Karna Bahadur Thapa, the now senior pilots of the corporation Subas Rizal and Rabindra Kumar Sherchan, the then deputy general manager Ramesh Bahadur Shah, the then Kamu director Ravindra Shrestha, current directors Upendra Paudel, Shravan Rizal, Umesh Paudel, then deputy director Paras Paudel and Brihatman Tulachan have been made defendants.

Deepak Sharma, a British citizen of Nepali origin, who is also the head of the aircraft supplier company International Supply Chain and AAR International Inc. America, Director of Hifly X Ireland Limited and representative of German Aviation Capital Christian Nuhlen, citizen of Romania/Moldova and Finance Director of German Aviation Capital Oleg Calistru, AAR Corporation John M. Holmes, president and chief executive officer of Inc. America, Ana Topa, managing director of German Aviation Capital GmbH Germany, Paulo Mirpuri, president of High Fly Airlines/High Fly Transport Arrows Portugal, are also named as defendants. 

In this case, the purchasing company has also been made a defendant. In the case filed on behalf of the company with its head and representative as the opponent, the demand for fine, imprisonment and fine has been taken. The authority has also made opposition to Hyfly X Ireland Limited director Gerald Thornton, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP Germany head Marcus Radbruch and appointed senior consultant in procurement Ralph Springer. 

The authority has demanded a fine and a prison sentence of 3 months to 3 years against the then Minister Shahi. Similarly, in the case of corruption, an additional 3 years of imprisonment has been demanded as a person working in a high position of the state. In Section 24 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 2059, it is mentioned that if an officer appointed by the President to the general manager commits an offense while in office, he will be punished with imprisonment for an additional 3 years. In the case of Widebody, a case has been filed against the employees from the minister to the joint secretary with the demand of punishment according to the said section. 

Former tourism ministers Jitendra Narayan Dev, Dilnath Giri and Rabindra Adhikari, who were involved in the investigation, were not made defendants. It is mentioned in the charge sheet that the involvement of Dev and Giri in the decision-making process of the purchase has not been confirmed. Another former ministerial officer has passed away. Since the foundation of the irregularity was laid when he was a royal minister, he is fully responsible for it. 

The authority charged against the defendants for fraudulently revising the purchase criteria during the purchase of ships for the corporation, maintaining the price of one cargo by showing the carrying capacity of another, fraudulently showing an increase in the price of the ship and making payment, making provisions to favor a certain company, more than the carrying capacity of the aircraft. Charged including payment. 

When a sub-committee was formed to buy new aircraft for the corporation, the game of buying old aircraft was carried out in a corrupt manner. A procurement committee was formed under the coordination of the then General Manager Kansakar to buy the ship. After that, Kansakar formed a three-member sub-committee under the chairmanship of Surya Prasad Acharya, a member of the board of directors, and formed a study committee to purchase the aircraft. On June 30, 2073, the board of directors revised the criteria and decided to buy the ship from the cabinet. Then the sub-committee submitted its report on 32 July 2073.

Two months later, on October 5, the board of directors instructed the corporation management to come up with a 3-year action plan including procurement. After that, Kansakar formed a sub-committee chaired by Acting Director Ramhari Sharma, and the sub-committee gave an opinion that it would be appropriate to buy A-330-200 widebody aircraft from the aircraft manufacturer Airbus. Prior to that, when the MOU between Airbus and the corporation was signed in November 2009, the price per aircraft was 88 million 99 thousand 317 US dollars.

According to the previous MoU, in 2017, when added with the price increase, the price per plane was fixed at 11 million 81 million 63 thousand 773 dollars. However, last time the process was initiated to buy ships built after 2014. By saying that this provision is made to purchase the products of a certain company and a certain year in agreement, the Authority has interpreted it as a game designed to embezzle government property and defamation. For this reason, the sub-committee led by Kansakar revised the previously agreed criteria and on October 7, 2073, the meeting led by the Tourism Secretary Adhikari, who is also the chairman of the board of directors, gave approval to call for public notices to buy two old wide-body ships. 

Three days later, a notice was issued on October 10. On October 23, an 11-member evaluation committee was formed under the leadership of Kamu Deputy General Manager Ramesh Bahadur Shah. It is mentioned in the indictment of the authority that this committee formed the basis of evaluation in collusion. The committee submitted its report on January 2. Since there were proposals from 11 companies, the procurement arrangements were made to favor the companies that had already been agreed upon, so only certain companies were limited to the competition. As a result, AAR Corporation's proposal on behalf of the consortium of AAR Corporation German and German Aviation Capital/HiFi Airlines, both limited by mutual agreement, was accepted. After the approval, Kansakar sent a letter to Deepak Sharma, the head of AAR Corporation, on January 2, calling for an MoU for the purchase of the ship. For the MoU, a 4-member committee was formed with Dhungana, who is also the director general of the customs department, as the coordinator and Kansakar as the member secretary of the corporation board. The committee submitted its report on January 9. 

Based on that, the Cabinet meeting on May 7, 2014 decided to provide a 25 billion loan from the Provident Fund and Citizen Investment Fund for the purchase of ships. After that, the Ministry of Finance sent the guarantee letter to the Savings Fund and the Investment Fund. Initially, after receiving the letter from the Ministry of Finance, both funds were in the final stages of disbursing the loan. However, after the study of the organization's experts pointed out that some things were unclear in the procurement process and the documents were insufficient, both of them wrote to the corporation asking various questions. In the ship procurement process, the Employees Provident Fund and Citizens Investment Fund kept the loan agreement on hold for a long time saying that the contract process was transparent, the submitted documents were not reliable and credible.

Initially, the Provident Fund and Citizens Investment Fund raised questions about certain inconsistencies between the tender, memorandum and purchase agreement. Is the company that is going to pay the amount legitimate or not? Why was the company not mentioned in the 'Request for Proposal' (RFP)? The purchase agreement was with a consortium of AAR Corporation Inc (USA), German Aviation Capital (Germany) and Hifly Aero Transport (Portugal) but why was the deal with Hifly X Ireland? What is the guarantee that the order placed is for the said ship corporation? What is the basis that the ship will come after payment? How are accounts opened in the UK operated and controlled for payment? If any dispute arises in the future regarding the operation of the account, how will it be resolved? Both institutions were not in favor of disbursing loans until these questions were answered clearly and satisfactorily. 

However, later, after the government insisted on not delaying the loan disbursement saying that it has its guarantee, both of them approved the agreement. "The loan was approved after there was a lot of pressure as to why the government delayed the loan after the guarantee," said an official of the Provident Fund at the time to Kantipur. At that time, Premkumar Rai, the current head of the Authority, was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Provident Fund. Rai, Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Supply, was the ex-officio chairman of the fund's board of directors. According to the agreement and decision made by the board of directors of the corporation, the board of directors of the fund did not make a decision on the matter saying that there would be risk in giving loans from the fund. The Citizens Investment Fund also balked at lending. However, due to the political, administrative and middlemen's interests in the purchase of ships, the power center was focused on lobbying for quick loan disbursement from the fund anyway. Despite that, the loan did not flow. After that, it was decided by the Cabinet that the Government itself would stand as a guarantor for the loan of the Provident Fund and Citizen Investment Fund for the purchase of ships. Then the way of payment was opened.

An investigating officer says that the main reason for working at such a speed is to complete the procurement process as soon as possible and embezzle the funds. To what extent, the carrying capacity of the aircraft was mentioned to be 242 tons at the time of the purchase agreement, but it was reduced to 230 tons, but when the amount was paid, it was 242 tons. By saying that he did not take any initiative as a departmental minister to stop the game of paying high prices by reducing the carrying capacity, the Authority has made Tourism Minister Shahi the main responsible, saying that this is a collusive work.

'Ignoring the legal facts of public procurement and causing harm to the corporation, the illegal price increase conditions in the MoU and the major technical specification load capacity of the aircraft have been reduced from 242 tons to 230 tons, but the payment has been kept at 242 tons. It is against the law to recommend the facility of dollar exchange without bank guarantee protection when bringing a proposal without doing so as a departmental minister.  The

letter further states, 'The legalization of the MOU against the law, the decision by the minister to pay the commitment fee without bank guarantee security, and by this decision any officer or body succeeding the minister cancels the MOU, the corporation should also lose the commitment fee and get the aircraft as well. It was confirmed / made at risk of repeating the decisions that have not been a state of stories of

Minister for decisions and supplied the agreement according to 2030 tons of capacity of 678,119 and 250-tons of capacity of 678,119 The ministerial officials and the staff have a main blame for being pricing 6.6 million. More loading capacity has accused India of Hinamin, which has been misunderstood by various market capacity by both the less weary tension by having a lower burden capacity by leaving the price in the cover of the price increase. This is not the case. & Nbsp of about one and a half mailas of Rs. The then General Manager of the Story Corporation Corporation of the Story Corporate amendment, including the consultant, has been organized by the consultant, including the competition. The tourist secretary officials, presiding on the board of directors, has been involved in the decision to bring the money officer to bring from the board of directors, including the unsuspecting decision, and scored more economic obligations and created more economic obligations. Member of Statement Committee and Corporations, including the contractor company, has been made defeated by the contractor company. & Nbsp;