A corruption case has been filed against 18 people, including former minister and Congress MP Mohan Bahadur Basnet, for alleged irregularities in the purchase of Terramax equipment for the Nepal Telecommunication Authority.

The Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission filed a case in a special court on Thursday with a fine of 3 billion 2183 million 77 thousand 182 rupees against those involved in the purchase of equipment. 

According to Rajendra Kumar Poudel, spokesperson of the Authority, a case has been filed against the then Minister of Communications and Member of the House of Representatives elected from Sindhupalchok-2 Basnet, the then members of the Telecommunication Authority Dhanraj Gyawali and Tika Prasad Upreti, the former chairman of the Authority Digambar Jha and Purushottam Khanal.

The authority has also filed a charge sheet against the then directors of the authority Vijay Kumar Rai, Surendralal Hada and Dipesh Acharya and deputy directors Revathiram Panth, Suresh Basnet, Hiranya Prasad Bastakoti, Achutanand Mishra and Sandeep Adhikari. 

The Authority has made the consultant Venrise Solutions and its CEO Jamal Anauti, Venrise's local agent Connection Trade Link Pvt. Ltd. and its chairman Dilip Kumar Gurung and director Tej Prasad Kharel as defendants. 

The then Communications Ministers Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and Gokul Baskota, the then Communications Secretaries Mahendraman Gurung and Vaikunth Aryal (retired from Chief Secretary) and the then Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Communications Vinod Singh (currently retired from Secretary) have not been prosecuted by the Authority. An officer involved in the investigation claimed that they were not made defendants because they were not proven to have committed a crime. 

The authority has demanded a prison sentence of 10 to 14 years against the former minister Basnet and the then official of the Telecommunication Authority. It is mentioned in the charge sheet that against the then Minister Basnet, 3 billion 21 crores 83 lakhs 77 thousand 182 rupees were collected, he should be imprisoned for 1 year or fined up to 500,000 rupees or both for exceeding the jurisdiction of the Council of Ministers. An additional 3 years imprisonment has also been demanded against Basnet for committing a crime in a high position.

It is mentioned in the charge sheet that Jha and Khanal, the then presidents of the authority, should be sentenced to another 3 years in prison for the same 3 billion 21 crore 83 lakh 77 thousand 182 rupees for wrongful collection and high position. The Authority is demanding that 3 billion 21 crore 83 lakh 77 thousand 182 rupees should be jointly recovered from the then joint secretary (later retired from the secretary) Gyawali and another member Tika Prasad Upreti who were appointed as expert members from the Ministry of Law. 

Authority's director Vijay Kumar Rai, deputy directors Revatiram Panth, Suresh Basnet, Hiranya Prasad Bastakoti and Achutanand Mishra have been charged a lump sum of 3.21 billion 83.77 thousand 182 rupees for wrongful collection, 3 months to 1 year imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 to 50,000 rupees.

Similarly, a sum total of 3 billion 21 crore 83 lakh 77 thousand 182 rupees has been demanded against the directors of the authority, Surendra Lal Hada and Dipesh Acharya and the deputy director Sandeep Adhikari. 

Venerize Solutions and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jamal Anauti should be found guilty as a fraudster, and the authority demands that a lump sum of Rs. Likewise, the local agent of Venrise Solutions, Connection Trade Link, its president Dilip Kumar Gurung and director Tej Prasad Kharel, have also been sued by demanding fines, imprisonment and fines against Venrise Solutions and Anauti as well.

The government decided to install the 'Telecommunication Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (Teramox)' to stop revenue evasion by regulating calls coming from abroad and illegal call bypass. The authority sent the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology for approval of the annual program for the financial year 2074/75, and the Ministry approved it on 23 August 2074, including the purchase of Terramax equipment, which was not included in the budget.

In that order, the point "in addition to purchasing appropriate equipment-systems for international call monitoring and VoIP call control" was added. Then on 1 October 2074, the authority board meeting approved the cost of 3 billion 25 million and started the procurement process.  Basnet was the minister of communication who approved the

annual program, while Jha was the chairman of the authority at that time. While the bench of the then Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha and Judge Devendra Gopal Shrestha had already ordered on 21st March 2072 that such devices should not be installed without making a law for 'tapping' phone calls of a person. On 20 October 2074, the authority started the consultant selection process for the purchase of

equipment. Before that, on October 17, the then Secretary Mahendraman Gurung and Minister Basnet approved the file in a phased manner. After the general election, the process became blocked after the government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba was removed and the matter went to litigation. 

UML president KP Sharma Oli became the Prime Minister along with Maoists after the general election. Gokul Baskota, who is the Minister of Communications in Oli's cabinet, took forward the process of purchasing Terramax equipment. The then Minister Baskota approved the budget of Rs 70 crore in October 2075 when the Telecommunication Authority sent a letter asking for Rs 25 crore for the purchase of equipment. Even then, the file did not move forward as the matter was litigated and disputed.

A year and a half later, in February 2076, Baskota resigned from the post after getting involved in a `70 crore bribe deal' in the purchase of security printing equipment. Then Yuvraj Khatiwada became the Minister of Communications. During his time, the process of purchasing Terramax equipment did not proceed. On 28 June 2078, Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba became the Prime Minister after Oli was relieved of his post by the Supreme Court's order. After that, the Teramox procurement process was resumed.

At that time Congress leader Karki was the Communications Minister and Aryal was the Secretary. During the same period, a contract was signed to buy equipment worth 3.5 billion rupees through Venrise Solutions, registered in Cyprus and having an office in Lebanon. The authority has claimed that they were not made defendants because they wrote "according to the order of the Supreme Court" in the file forwarded by the minister and the secretary. Digambar Jha was the chairman of the authority when the tender for the purchase of equipment was called.

The 16 companies involved in the tender included Venrise Solutions, SGS SS Geneva, TKC Telecom Inc Canada, Nsoft Limited Hong Kong, among others. At the beginning, the provisions of the tender were placed in the agreement to be favorable for certain companies, and Venrise was selected from the short-list and awarded the contract of 237 million 70 thousand US dollars (3 billion 21 million 83 million 77 thousand 182 rupees). At that time, TKC offered to provide the equipment for only 15 million dollars. It is mentioned in the charge sheet of the authority that it was found in the investigation that the actions from these processes to procurement were done in collusion. 

The irregularity was revealed after Venrise Solutions brought in the device at an unnatural price in the first phase. At that time, the airport customs stopped the goods due to the abnormal price. Kantipur had published news on 4th January 2079 regarding the 'setting' and irregularities in the purchase of Teramox. It was also found that the standards were changed for specific companies during the procurement of

equipment. When the airport customs stopped and checked the goods in the warehouse, not only did they bring illegal equipment, but it was revealed that there was an agreement to bring the equipment made in China by a company registered in Cyprus to do business with a Lebanese company. After that, the authority started the investigation. 

After receiving a complaint about irregularities in the procurement process from the authority, the authority gave instructions to cancel the contract with Venrise, saying that the quality was found during the investigation. The Authority had written a letter in January and March 2075 and instructed to cancel all the procedures for the purchase of Teramox services.

After the authority sent a letter to the authority with a warning for the third time, the process of awarding the contract to Venrise was canceled on 29 Baisakh 2076. There was an effort to evade the directives of the authority to purchase. After the cancellation of the contract, the contractor company went directly to the Supreme Court without going to the review committee against the decision to cancel the contract.

The then Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Jabara and Judge Kumar Chudal's bench heard the writ on 14 Baisakh 2078 and ordered the contract to proceed from Venrise. After 2 and a half months, Deuba became the Prime Minister and Karki became the Minister of Communications. After that, the procurement process started. Karki agreed to the contract agreement so that the supplementary budget can be spent from the Rural Telecommunication Fund. 

Singh, the then joint secretary of the Ministry of Communications, raised a comment order on 17 October 2078 for the approval of the supplementary budget for the purchase of Teramox. 5 days later, on 22 October, Secretary Aryal submitted with the statement that 'the above matter is necessary for Nepal, it has been ordered by the court and since there is no budget allocation for this purpose in the current year of the authority, I have submitted it for the decision to agree to purchase the necessary equipment for Terramax by arranging a supplementary budget'. The file submitted by the secretary was endorsed by the then Minister Karki on 25 October. 

In the first phase, 109 servers, 2 laptops and 8 mobile sets were brought on 21 August 2079. The purchase price of those goods was shown as 88 million 12 thousand 886 US dollars. Two laptops were priced at $50,000. The price of the server equipment was said to be 79 thousand 920 US dollars. The authority paid 1 billion 11 billion 25 lakh 52 thousand 143 rupees to Venrise to bring the first phase of goods. 

Customs stopped the goods without passing the inspection due to the abnormal price. Later, the authority officials insisted on releasing the goods in the 'setting'. After that, the goods were inspected by the customs by keeping a bond of 32 million rupees. The authority itself had given written pressure on 2 October 2079 to release the equipment that was kept at the customs. It was said that the ownership would belong to the authority only after the purchasing company hands over the goods.

On 10th January 2079, on the same day that the goods were passed with bail, the customs sent a letter to the Authority, the Revenue Department, the Money Laundering Investigation Department and the National Bank, asking them to investigate the purchase and payment of Terramax equipment. Based on that letter, the authority filed a case on Thursday after completing the investigation.

It has also been seen that the company was established with the connivance of officials/employees of the authority to kill the Terramax equipment contract. Venrise registered a branch office in Nepal on 23 December 2078. Before that, VAT/PAN was registered on 27th December 2078 and another VAT/PAN was registered on 25th. Then accounts were opened in Machhapuchhre and Kumari Bank.