In the Parliamentary Committee, the Home Minister did not mention anything about canceling the old contract process, but claimed that both the Nepal Police and the Armed Police will purchase weapons through the new process.
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The Home Minister Ramesh Akhtar gave a 'tall' answer in the parliamentary committee regarding the revival of the arms procurement contract process, which had become controversial three years ago. Without mentioning anything about the cancellation of the old contract process, he has claimed that both the Nepal Police and the Armed Police will buy weapons through the new process.
The process was stopped after the commission came to the surface that three years ago, the government had started a plan to buy weapons worth one and a half billion. The procurement process was suspended at the stage of opening letter of credit (LC) from Rashtra Bank for the police and when the LC was already opened for the armed forces.
is being played time and again to wake up the same purchase process . The government has not canceled the old contracts of both the police regarding the purchase of arms. On the other hand, it has been insisted that procurement will be carried out through a new process.
In the Federalism Strengthening and National Concerns Committee meeting under the National Assembly on Friday, Minister of Home Affairs, Home Secretary Gokarnamani Duwadi, Inspector General of Police Deepak Thapa and Inspector General of Armed Police Raju Aryal were called to discuss issues related to arms procurement and security . In the
meeting, the members of the committee asked for answers on issues including the arms procurement dispute and peace and security of the country. During that time, Home Minister Akbar mentioned that the budget has been received for the purchase of weapons for the police in the current financial year and said that the purchase will be carried out transparently through a new process.
Pointing to the published news about the work being carried forward from the old contract, the minister said that the procurement is going to be done according to the rules and laws. "Continuing contracts that were opened three to four years ago, and purchasing weapons accordingly, is not a job." There should be no doubt about that,' he said in the committee, 'the budget has been allocated for the purchase of weapons . The purchase is made in a transparent manner according to the law within the limits of the budget allocated by the government.'
Home Minister Akbar said that both weapons and physical structures are a priority for the security agencies. "If only the infrastructure is to be built, if weapons are not provided, there will be another problem." Now the teacher will have to buy duster and chalk, but the students will have to buy copy books. It would have been surprising if they talked about buying weapons for teachers and buying chalk-dusters for the police,'' he said. "Criminals with weapons should be arrested in some places on the border. What happens if the criminal finds out that the police have no weapons? Therefore, the necessary weapons are to be bought," he said.
In the budget of the current fiscal year, 1.9 billion rupees have been allocated to buy weapons and security materials for the police. For the armed forces, no budget has been allocated to buy weapons. The government has already revised the public procurement regulations for arms procurement.
In the meeting of the parliamentary committee, the minister did not enter the matter of the old contract being 'maintained'. According to the sources, Home Minister Akbar is active in purchasing weapons from the old contract. In 2078, the then finance minister Janardan Sharma transferred the money and started the process of purchasing weapons for both policemen. On 24 Chait 2078, the then Finance Minister Sharma ensured the resources for the purchase of weapons. The Ministry of Home Affairs had instructed the Police Headquarters to submit the purchase plan . At that time Sher Bahadur Deuba was the Prime Minister, Balkrishna Khan was the Home Minister and Teknarayan Pandey was the Home Secretary.
The government had advanced the contract to buy 1000 pistols, 1550 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.
LC was opened to buy 2,300 pistols and 2,000 shotguns for the armed police. The police had prepared a cost estimate to buy weapons worth 6778 thousand 400 dollars. On 20 June 2079, the Police Headquarters signed an agreement with Hong Kong's Minerva Corporation Limited to purchase 100 9 mm guns, 12 bore shotguns (folding) and 1,150 guns.
The purchase contract was given to the Hong Kong company through an agent company under the company Infinity Holdings of Deepak Bhatt, the owner of Infinity. In the name of three persons working in the name of the employees working at Infiniti, the contract was awarded for the purchase of lethal and other weapons worth about 6.7 million dollars for the police and about 3.8 million dollars for the armed forces .
The Council of Ministers was forced to take a decision to 'suspend arms procurement' on 9 July 2079 after it was found that there was a commission game in the purchase contract that was advanced when foreign currency reserves were reduced. Before that, there were protests in parliament, streets and media regarding the arms deal.
At that time, the process of opening an LC to buy weapons worth 84 crores to the police was postponed. But both contracts are kept alive . The contract period of the police has been extended till November. Armed forces' LCs have also not been closed . Armed Forces have already returned the amount allocated for the LC to the government treasury after the procurement was suspended.
After the pressure to buy weapons from the old process increased, the Armed Forces asked for an opinion from the Public Procurement Monitoring Office, but the Procurement Monitoring Office did not give an opinion on the letter of the Armed Forces. It has since been armed with a squeeze that cannot be purchased from the old process. In the meeting of the committee on Friday, the Home Minister, the writer, repeated many times that the two policemen would buy weapons from the budget of the current financial year.
In the parliamentary committee meeting, Inspector General of Police Thapa insisted that there was no issue of arms purchase as reported in the news. He insisted that there is no truth about the old contract being revived. But the police headquarters itself extended the three-year-old contract until November 2082. "We have also read the news in the newspapers about the purchase of arms, I don't think that is the case, neither the Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, nor the Minister of Home Affairs," he said in the meeting. This is to be done by the law and rules.
Inspector General of Armed Police Aryal made it clear that the law will be followed even when buying medicine pills and weapons will not be purchased by mixing the rules and procedures. He informed that no budget has been allocated to purchase weapons for the armed forces for the current financial year. Nothing is bought against the rules. There should be no doubt here," he said.
Inspector General of Armed Police Aryal mentioned that the security personnel are working with many problems and emphasized that priority should be given to the construction of physical structures. "The security personnel are also short of rations." 203 rupees for ration in Kathmandu. It has to arrange food for the whole day from tea to bedtime," he said. "If we buy clothes according to the standards set by the government, we need 3 billion rupees annually. But last year we were given only 61.18 million rupees . This amount is not enough to buy clothes and boots, why is it not enough to buy boots and clothes?
