A corruption case has been filed against 6 people, including Sunil Paudel, the then executive director of the National Information Technology Center, on charges of corruption in the purchase of equipment.
In the fiscal year 2076/77, the Commission on Abuse of Authority has filed a case in the special court against 5 employees of the center including Paudel, contractor company and its representative for corruption of about 160 million rupees during the purchase of equipment related to 'high computer infrastructure' in the financial year 2076/77.
According to Rajendra Kumar Paudel, the spokesperson of the Authority, without a master plan, the center's officials and employees and contractors prepared a cost estimate of Rs. However, the authority said that a case has been filed against them because it was seen that they entered into a purchase contract for low-quality equipment at a high price and caused damage to government property by purchasing equipment against the originally specified conditions.
The authority has imposed a fine of Rs 1588850000 against the then executive director Paudel and demanded a fine and imprisonment. Additional punishment has also been demanded for Poudel for committing a crime as the head of the office. The authority has demanded a fine and imprisonment against the then director of the center Safal Shrestha, assistant director Ramesh Pokharel and computer engineer Ramsharan Gaik. The contractor company World Distribution Pvt Ltd and its chairman and managing director Arun Shrestha have also been ordered to be imprisoned and fined as the main culprits.
The authority has demanded imprisonment and fine against the then account officer of the center Nim Bahadur Wali. Earlier, the authority had filed a corruption case in the special court against the five employees who were made defendants in the case of procurement of equipment of the center. The then Executive Director Paudel was found guilty and is serving his imprisonment in Dillibazar Jail because some of them were released on bail and some were acquitted.
The authority arrested him in 2080 and filed half a dozen cases against Paudel in the special court on different dates. He was found guilty in most of the cases.
