A special court has ruled that 1 billion 47 crore 10 lakh 85 thousand rupees was involved in the purchase of two widebody aircraft for Nepal Airlines Corporation 8 years ago.

The bench of special court chairperson Judge Teknarayan Kunwar, member judges Tejnarayan Singh Rai and Ritendra Thapa has sentenced 4 people, including the then chairman and general manager of the corporation involved in the purchase of the ship, to imprisonment.  Representatives of foreign companies involved in the

procurement process have also been found guilty. The Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission had filed a case in the special court on March 22 with the claim of 1 billion 47 crore 10 lakh 85 thousand rupees corruption in the Widebody procurement case.

Although the authority's claim regarding the corruption amount was confirmed, only 4 Nepalis including the president of the corporation and 7 foreigners from various companies involved in the purchase were found guilty. 

It is mentioned in the brief judgment released by the special court on Thursday night that the amount of corruption will be recovered from the offender by Damasahi. According to the verdict, the then president of the corporation, Shankar Prasad Adhikari, general manager Sugaratna Kansakar and members of the board of directors Budhisagar Lamichhane and Shishir Kumar Dhungana were found guilty. 

It is mentioned in the judgment that Kansakar will be sentenced to 2 years and 6 months imprisonment for the crime. In accordance with the legal provision of additional punishment for corruption committed while holding a high position, the special judge has sentenced Kansakar to another 3 months imprisonment. It is decided to fine him 122,250,000 rupees and pay the same fine. 

The official who was the secretary of tourism and the chairman of the corporation at the time of corruption has been sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison. He has also been sentenced to an additional three months for corruption in a high position. According to the verdict, secretaries Dhungana and Lamichhane will be sentenced to 1 year and 6 months. Failures and fines will be the same as those of Kansakar.

The authority filed a case against 24 Nepalis and 8 foreigners including the then Tourism Minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi in a special court concluding that there was corruption in the purchase of widebody aircraft. Among them, British citizen Deepak Sharma, president of international supplier American company AAR Corporation, German citizen Christian Neuhlen, representative of German Aviation Capital Company, Romanian citizen Oleg Calistru, financial director of AAR International, have been found guilty.

AAR Company CEO John Holmes, German Aviation Capital Managing Director Ana Topa, High Fly X Chairman Paulo Mirpuri and Director Gerald Thornton have been sentenced. 

Sharma's company got a contract to buy a widebody ship. Evidence was found that Christian, a German citizen, colluded with 3 other companies in the procurement process. Kalistru was found to have opened High Fly X to buy the ship. John Holmes, president and CEO of AAR International of America, which initially contracted with the corporation.

It is mentioned in the verdict that all of them will be sentenced to one and a half years imprisonment and 122.25 million 90 thousand bigos and the same fine. Although other companies involved in the purchase of the ship and their representatives were found guilty, the escrow company and its representatives were acquitted. It is mentioned in the decision of the special that the Nepalese defendant appeared and gave a statement in the court within the deadline issued by the special and the foreign defendant did not appear within the deadline.

A company with a foreign national chairman was established and two big ships were purchased on February 19, 2073 and sold to the corporation for 24 billion rupees. At that time, it has been determined that the ship was bought and sold contrary to the Public Procurement Act, 2063 and the Public Procurement Regulations, 2065. The brief order of the special court also mentions the opinion that although the purchase of the flag-carrying ship, which is considered the pride of the nation, is necessary, it should be tough on corruption.

'The desire that the corporation of Nepal should gain fame like the fame established on the flight path by the national flag carriers, including Thailand, established with this glorious institution,' the special person said, 'but the corporation, which is a symbol of national pride, is always a loss-making business. There is an ironic situation that is going through the compulsion.' Although the honesty of the officers of the corporation is required, it was not reflected in the case of aircraft purchase  The

is mentioned in the verdict. 'The fact of the presented case is that due to internal financial irregularities and corrupt actions, it will create obstacles in the development of the organization and ultimately lead to the backwardness of the country.' The expert has given an opinion saying that it is also their responsibility to carry out the responsibility entrusted by the constitution and law, just like other related agencies of the state, for controlling corruption-related activities. "It seems that there is still an obstacle to not only the reform and development of the corporation, but also to establish the reputation of the national flag bearer, due to the fact that the defendants who have been convicted of crimes and convictions have caused damage to the corporation maliciously and in collusion," the summary judgment said.

The attention of the government has also been brought to the attention of the government to make the management side fully responsible for the procurement of aircraft by providing resources, means and honest and competent manpower to the management of the corporation.

A complaint was filed with the Authority on 27 January 2073 regarding the purchase of an aircraft. 2 years after that, on January 26, 2075, the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives also instructed the authority to investigate the widebody case as corruption. The Auditor General's 55th and 56th annual reports also pointed out that the aircraft procurement process was not legal. But due to the pressure and influence of power, the subtle investigation could not be done. After a long time, the authority started the investigation and registered the case. 

Against the defendants, the Authority has 'deliberately' amended the purchase criteria while purchasing a ship for a corporation, made provisions to suit a certain company, paid more than the carrying capacity of the aircraft, recommended dollar facility for payment without bank guarantee-security, including Charged. In this case, the company involved in the procurement process was also made a defendant.

When a sub-committee was formed to buy new aircraft for the corporation, the game of buying old aircraft was carried out by corrupt practices. 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. Before that, when the agreement between Airbus and the corporation was reached in November 2009, the price per aircraft was 88 million 99 thousand 317 US dollars.

According to the previous MoU, in 2017 with the price increase, the price per plane was fixed at 118.1 million 63 thousand 773 dollars. However, last time the process was started to buy ships built after 2014.

Saying that this provision has been made to purchase certain company's products and certain years in agreement, the authority interpreted it as a game designed to embezzle government property.

Similarly, the cabinet meeting on May 7, 2074 decided that the government would provide a loan of 25 billion 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 a letter from the Ministry of Finance, they were in the final stages of disbursing the loan, both of these funds. 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 process of ship purchase, the Employee Provident Fund and Citizen Investment Fund kept the loan agreement on hold for a long time saying that the contract process was not transparent, the submitted documents were not reliable and trustworthy. However, after the government insisted on not delaying the loan disbursement saying that it has its guarantee, both of them approved the agreement.