The government has prepared to purchase weapons worth about one and a half billion rupees for the Nepal Police and Armed Police after 'reviving the controversial game' of three years ago. Although crowd control is useful for both police and non-lethal security equipment is essential, the controversial old contract to buy lethal weapons is about to be pushed forward.

The lists were submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs by both the security agencies prioritizing non-lethal security equipment. Riot control gear, tear gas, blank fire, rubber bullets, multi gas guns, water cannons, fire extinguishers, diving equipment, rubber boats/motorboats, other emergency rescue equipment needed for disaster were mentioned in the list. But instead of those materials, they are going to spend 1 billion 59 million to buy deadly equipment.

The government has prepared to buy 1,000 pistols, 1,550 shotguns, 200,000 rounds of shotgun bullets (cartridges), 300,000 rounds of shotgun rubber bullets, 24,000 cells of tear gas and 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition for the police. Similarly, they are trying to buy 2,300 pistols and 2,000 shotguns for armed forces. In the budget presented on May 15, 1.9 billion has been allocated for the purchase of weapons for the police, while the armed forces are going to be purchased from about 500 million rupees after the LC was opened three years ago. Although the budget is new, the process started three years ago. Some officials of home and police are scared because such purchase is illegal. 

In 2078, the then Finance Minister Janardan Sharma started the arms procurement process by transferring money. But due to the lack of foreign exchange reserves, the process was stopped after news was published in Kantipur that they were going to buy lethal weapons by transferring money while banning the import of daily consumables. Although the contract has been postponed, the government has not canceled it. 

The purchase contract was given to the Hong Kong company through an agent company under Infinity Holdings, which is owned by businessman Deepak Bhatt. At that time the Prime Minister was Sher Bahadur Deuba, Home Minister Balkrishna Khan and Home Secretary Teknarayan Pandey. After the fact that there was an agreement in the purchase came out, the government was forced to postpone the letter of authorization opened for the armed forces. 

The government also backed away from the decision that 'resources of 84 crore rupees have been ensured' for the police. KP Sharma Oli, the main opposition UML president at that time, protested that the contract was awarded at a high price for "commission eating". After Deuba, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and now Oli are the Prime Minister. But his own government is trying to continue the plan that Oli opposed. Sources in the Administration Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs say that the budget that is not demanded by the home to buy weapons is kept in an 'abnormal' manner.

Similarly, despite the decision of the Council of Ministers on 19 July 2079 to 'suspend arms procurement' for the armed forces, the amount of the certificate opened by the armed forces has been returned to the government account. Although the disputed arms procurement process was stopped three years ago, the government has extended the deadline of the agreement in a 'mysterious' manner. The three-year-old contract for the purchase of police weapons has been extended until November. For this, the government amended the Public Procurement Regulations (Fourteenth) in the first week of April and included a provision to extend the term of the contracts that were previously awarded, the budget was not assured and the contracts that were postponed for various reasons.

Rule 120 of the Procurement Rules (Thirteenth Amendment) has been amended to provide that if the period of the contract has expired before the issuance of this rule, it will be 'automatically extended'. Rule 120 (a) of the Rules has been deleted and some clauses have been added. "Except as mentioned in Rule 120, if the work cannot be completed within the specified period for any reason, the old contract can be revived if the contractor applies for the purchase contract that is incomplete but has expired or cannot be extended". 

In the budget brought by the government on 15th of June after the revision of the rules, 1.9 billion rupees have been allocated for the purchase of weapons and security equipment for the police. The process was started in Chait 2078 by purchasing weapons worth about 6.6 million US dollars for the police and about 3.8 million dollars for the armed police. Warrants were opened for the armed forces to buy weapons worth about 3.8 million dollars.

Both the security agencies are in favor of going through the new process, fearing that "authorities may investigate corruption" if they buy weapons through the old process. But the official says that the government is pushing to continue the old process. 

After the home pressured to increase the process, the armed forces sought an opinion from the Public Procurement Monitoring Office on whether it is possible to purchase equipment through the old process or not. A few weeks ago, a letter was written to the said office asking for an opinion on whether it would be legal to proceed with the old process, but the office has not given any opinion on this. 

Joint Secretary of the Procurement Monitoring Office Rambandhu Subedi says, 'If the purchasing agency feels that this is illegal and is not satisfied with the procurement process, it can file an application with the Public Procurement Review Committee, and the decision will be taken from there.' "We sent a letter for opinions, but there was no response," he says, "we have not decided what to do now." An official from the

house says that according to the old procedure, the process of purchasing weapons worth about 6.7 million dollars for the police and about 3.8 million dollars for the armed forces has proceeded. Home spokesperson Ramchandra Tiwari responded that he was not aware of the purchase. "The budget has been secured for the purchase of weapons and other security materials, the police also need weapons to increase their capacity," he says, "but I am not aware of the procurement process and the issues related to it, which stage has been reached." "Government had decided to buy security equipment earlier as it was considered necessary, but after the government postponed it, the process did not proceed even though there was a purchase agreement," Inspector General Thapa said to Kantipur, "For 2082/83, the budget has been allocated for the construction of security equipment and other structures, including arms/bullets, and now we will proceed with the new procurement process." 

He claimed that there is no truth in the rumor that the old contract has been budgeted. "We need all kinds of lethal/non-lethal security equipment, the government has allocated the budget this time, now we will supply it through the procurement process," he says. On 20 June 2079, according to the wishes of the then government and intermediaries, the police headquarters signed an agreement with the Hong Kong company Minerva Corporation Limited to purchase 100 9 mm guns, 12 bore shotguns (folding) and 1,150 guns. Before that, on 24 Chait 2078, the then Finance Minister Sharma ensured the resources for the purchase of arms. Home to submit purchase plan, police 

was directed to head office. The police had prepared a cost estimate to buy weapons worth 6778 thousand 400 dollars. 

At that time the Inspector General of Police was Dheeraj Pratap Singh. Deepak Thapa (currently Inspector General) was in the Directorate of Management under the Administration Department who finalized the procurement process. The police headquarters signed a purchase agreement with Mercury Trading, a local agent managed by Manoj Agarwal, an employee of Infinity Holdings, to buy from Hong Kong's Minerva Corporation. On 29 Baisakh 2079, an agreement was reached with Mercury Trading Pvt Ltd of Lazimpat, the Nepali agent of the company, to buy 100 9 mm pistols for 669 thousand dollars and to buy folding shotguns for 24 lakh 94 thousand 350 dollars.

Similarly, bids were called on 19 Baisakh 2079 to buy 2 lakh rounds of shotgun cartridges, 3 lakh rounds of shotgun rubber bullets, 24 thousand rounds of 0.38 mm tear gas and 10 lakh 20 thousand rounds of 9 mm ammunition. About two months after that, on 13 June 2079, a purchase agreement was signed with the Hong Kong company through Infinity's local agent company for these four types of lethal weapons.

The police headquarters had an agreement with Global Constellation Trading, the local agent of Nihal Trading in Hong Kong, to purchase 200,000 rounds of shotgun bullets for 432,000 dollars, rubber bullets for shotguns for 950,400 dollars, 24,000 rounds of tear gas bullets for 799,920 dollars, and 10,000,000 rounds of ammo for 13,28,400 dollars. To buy all these weapons/bullets, the police headquarters had entered into an agreement with Deepak Bohra, an employee of Infinity, for a contract of $6673,710.

Similarly, the armed police opened an LC with Mercury Trading, a local agent managed by Agarwal, an employee of Infinity Holdings, to buy 2,300 Italian Beretta brand pistols from Hong Kong's Minerva Corporation on 16 June 2079. Aggarwal is the Managing Director of Fox Travel Agency under Infinity. This amount was fixed at 251.7 million rupees according to the exchange rate at that time. On the same date, a letter of acceptance was opened by Rashtra Bank to purchase 2,000 shotguns of the 'Toros brand' manufactured in Brazil with Perun Enterprises, the Nepal-based agent of Hong Kong's 'Aris Technologies Limited', worth approximately 1.7 million 98 thousand dollars (equivalent to approximately 23 million 55 million).