Sunil Poudel, the then executive director of the National Information Technology Center, has been found to have accepted a bribe from the contractor through a Singapore bank for arranging the contract for the purchase of equipment for the National Payment Gateway, a national payment system that conducts government business electronically.

 The Abuse of Power Investigation Commission on Monday filed a case in the special court against 5 people including Paudel and a company on charges of corruption in the purchase of payment gateway servers for the Centre.

In the financial year 2075/76, a contract worth Rs. It has been confirmed by the authority's investigation that Paudel accepted a bribe of 79,640 US dollars from Singapore's United Overseas Bank (UOB) through a contractor company for getting that contract.

According to the authority, after the contract was awarded in Nepal, it was found that the bribe was deposited in the account of Paudel in UOB on behalf of Bancotech Pvt. Max International got the contract to buy the server in Nepal. The authority has filed a case against Paudel along with the then assistant director of the center Ramesh Pokharel, computer engineer Ram Sharan Gaik, accounting officer Nim Bahadur Wali, Max International Pvt.

A case has been filed against Paudel with the demand for amount, penalty and imprisonment. Demand for fine and imprisonment has been taken against the then assistant director Pokharel and computer engineer Gaik as well. Similarly, it is mentioned in the indictment filed by the authority against Accounts Officer Wali and CEO of Max International, Hussain, that they should be separately imprisoned and fined and embezzled.

When purchasing servers for the fiscal year 2075/76, it has been accused of working without preparing a public procurement plan, preparing cost estimates, colluding to submit the price in detail to meet the approved technical evaluation. It has also been found that the criteria for awarding the purchase contract to Max has been revised. According to the authority, the management of the bribe received for awarding the contract in this way is managed through an account opened in Singapore.  For the purchase of

equipment, the center prepared a cost estimate of 262,953,000 and called for a contract. In the same contract, Paudel has been made a defendant by the authority for overpaying the amount that was fixed against the preconditions. For this, it is mentioned in the indictment that the contract agreement was handed over to Max in agreement after amending the provisions including the cost plan and estimate.

Authority said that the purchase of equipment for the payment gateway was suspicious, the technical details of the main equipment purchased were found to be in line with the details obtained online, and it was found that the price of the main equipment purchased was higher than the current price list found in the online source. "Given" has shown them guilty.

Sunil and Vikal Poudel, the then executive director of Surakshan Printing, managed the 'black money' earned by colluding in various purchases in Nepal by opening an account in Singapore's UOB, but the fact of how much bribe they took in which purchase was not confirmed. The fact that Sunil opened an account in a bank in Singapore and deposited 208,000 US dollars and 10,000 Singapore dollars only from 2020 to 2022 (2076-2078) was not revealed by whom.

The case filed on Monday is related to the irregularities related to the purchase of technical equipment purchased by the Center between October 7, 2075 and June 27, 2076. Earlier, on 23rd January 2081, the authority filed a case against Paudel in the special court in the case of purchase of equipment for the year 2074/75. He has been found guilty.

Similarly, Paudel has been found guilty in a case filed on charges of acquiring illegal wealth by misusing his position. He was arrested on March 10, 2080 from Kathmandu after being investigated for crimes such as procurement scam, illegal wealth acquisition, and bribery. He was the managing director of Nepal Telecom when he was arrested.

Before that, KP Sharma Oli became the executive director of the center in 2075 when he was the prime minister. He was made Managing Director of Telecom when Sher Bahadur Deuba was the Prime Minister by revising the criteria. After that, after a step-by-step investigation by the authority, three cases were filed against him.

Similarly, the case filed in Kathmandu court in October 2081 through the District Public Prosecutor's Office Kathmandu is under investigation by the Kathmandu Police on the Kirte charge. A case was filed for the offense of creating a tax payment certificate by taking information that was not found in the records of the Internal Revenue Office. Another corruption related case was filed on Monday. He is currently in jail after being convicted of illegal wealth acquisition and equipment procurement scam.