It has been found that the sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee under the House of Representatives formed to investigate the errors, irregularities and corruption during the construction of Gautam Buddha International Airport did not enter into its main mandate.

The controversy started when the sub-committee chaired by UML MP and Former Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Yogesh Bhattarai, which is leading the government, prepared a preliminary report without investigating corruption and irregularities during the construction of Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa, Rupandehi.

The Public Accounts Committee formed a sub-committee to conduct on-site study and monitoring of Gautam Buddha International Airport, Bhairahawa, which was completed as a project of national pride on 27th June 2081. On the same day, a sub-committee was formed to investigate the irregularities and corruption during the construction of Pokhara International Airport under the coordination of RPP MP Rajendra Lingden.

The sub-committee led by Lingden has submitted a report to the Accounts Committee with the conclusion that at least 10 billion was involved in corruption during the construction of Pokhara Airport, with recommendations for action against the people involved. The sub-committee led by Bhattarai was not able to discuss the rest after preparing the preliminary report and did not enter into the subject of investigation of corruption and irregularities. After the members raised questions about the coordinator of the

sub-committee, Bhattarai has announced that he will not continue in that role. The secretariat has informed that a meeting has been called on Wednesday to select a coordinator for the sub-committee instead of Bhattarai.

The sub-committee chaired by Bhattarai was mandated to investigate the corruption in the construction of the project. What is the situation in relation to complaints that there is a defect in the construction? How was the land management done in relation to the determination and distribution of land compensation?' In the preliminary report, it is written about the purpose of the sub-committee, 'And what other challenges and problems are there to operate the airport as an international airport?' 

It is also written in the preliminary report that an on-site observation was conducted with the aim of sending a written report to authorities and other agencies for action if corruption or irregularities were found during the construction of the airport. "If there is any suspicion of irregularities, embezzlement or corruption in matters such as the construction of physical structures, land acquisition and compensation determination, the purpose of the on-site observation visit was to submit a report to the committee with instructions to be given to the Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission to study and investigate the matter and find out the truth and if found to be the case, take action," the preliminary report prepared by the sub-committee states. 

An investigation sub-committee was formed on the basis of the complaints submitted to the committee regarding Gautam Buddha Airport, the issues repeatedly raised by MPs in the committee and the parliament. However, the sub-committee has written about its limitations in the report, "Due to the lack of full understanding and knowledge of some technical aspects of the airport, it has definitely been felt that there has been an impact on the deep understanding." Coordinator Bhattarai was in charge of the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation responsible for the construction of the airport from July 15, 2076 to December 5, 2077. While he was in charge, the airport was being built. Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa was laid by the then Prime Minister Sushil Koirala on January 1, 2071 and inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on May 2, 2079.

The ruling and opposition parliamentarians have questioned the coordinator as to whether he is going to cover up the reality by becoming the coordinator of the sub-committee under the audit committee which is in charge of the ministry during the construction of the airport and is currently investigating the irregularities and corruption seen in the construction of the airport. There has been a dispute that the sub-committee meeting was not called for a long time and the corruption and irregularities in the name of airport construction were not included in the report. 

In the meeting of the Audit Committee, RSVP MP Manish Jha raised the question that the persons who previously led the respective ministries should not be in the leadership of the investigation under that agency. A question was raised in the committee that it is not right to investigate the people and party leaders who are suspected to be involved.

Bhattarai has announced that he will not sit as sub-committee coordinator after questions were raised about him in the audit committee meeting. Since he said that the coordinator will not sit, the sub-committee meeting has not been held. After the question has been raised, I cannot sit in the sub-committee. If you don't accept me in Bhairahawa, who will you put in Pokhara? Pokhara's report is self-motivated in the beginning, he says.

In the previous Sunday meeting of the audit committee, after Bhattarai, the coordinator of the Bhairahawa airport construction study and monitoring sub-committee, was told that Bhattarai should not be retained, the chairman of the committee, Rishikesh Pokharel, proposed the name of UML MP Achyut Mainali. Pokharel, the UML MP who is leading the government, is the Chairman of the Accounts Committee. Since UML's ministers are involved in making decisions about the construction of the airport, the question has also been raised that UML's MP should not be appointed as the investigation coordinator of the Accounts Subcommittee.  The

sub-committee consists of 8 members including Shyamkumar Ghimire, chief whip of Congress and MP Manju Khan, coordinator Bhattarai from UML, Achyut Mainali and Saraj Ahmed Farooqui, Manish Jha of RSVP, Bikram Pandey of RPP and independent MP Amresh Kumar Singh.

Ghimire of Congress said that the main question is about the acquisition of more land than required for the construction of Bhairahawa Airport. He informed that the rest of the matter is under discussion in the sub-committee. "During the construction of Bhairawa Airport, a question has been raised regarding the purchase of more land than required. There is also a question whether overvaluation was done by buying the land," he said, "700 bighas of land has been acquired, was it necessary to acquire that much land for the single runway or not? These issues are yet to be discussed in the sub-committee.

According to the parliamentarians in the sub-committee, more land than needed was acquired for the construction of a runway of 3,000 meters length and 45 meters width. The preliminary report prepared by the sub-committee does not mention the reason for acquiring the land at such a huge cost. The sub-committee has not entered into the investigation of the questions raised regarding the land issue. "Rs 23 billion compensation was distributed to around 2200 households for the expansion of the airport," the preliminary report of the sub-committee states. The sub-committee also mentioned in the report that the investment for the construction of Gautam Buddha Airport was initially estimated at 6.22 billion, but it increased to 8.82 billion by the time it was completed.

"After the on-site monitoring of Bhairawa, the discussion only focused on how to put it into operation, the sub-committee did not enter the issue of irregularity during the construction, questions were raised about the terminal building and land acquisition, but the sub-committee did not enter into it," says Jha, "After the draft of the sub-committee's report, there was only one discussion, the issue of land acquisition was not included in the draft, so I questioned the coordinator as it looked suspicious."

Terminal Building The members of the sub-committee said that it is not possible to fully operate the Bhairahawa International Airport with its current structure, which is not of international standard but of domestic capacity and cannot handle the landing of three planes. But these issues have not been brought under the scope of investigation of the sub-committee and have not been mentioned in the preliminary report.