A case has been filed against 16 people, including the then mayor of the municipality, Deepak Bikram Shah, on charges of corruption in the construction of a building in Budhiganga Municipality, Bajura.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a case in a special court on Sunday against Mayor Shah, 15 people, and a construction company on charges of colluding in the cost estimate, contract agreement, and construction of a building from the allocated budget in 2078/79, causing damage to government property. Shah, who was named as the defendant, had won the 2074 local level election from the Nepali Congress.

A case was filed against the mayor, 12 employees, 2 contractors, and a contractor company, fixing a fine of Rs 32.78 million 78 thousand 177.65, and a demand for fines, imprisonment, and recovery of the embezzled amount has been made against Shah, according to CIAA spokesperson Suresh Neupane.

A lump sum of Rs 32.78 million has been fixed against the then Chief Administrative Officer of the municipality, Premkaji Maharjan, Officer Narendra Nath, then Engineer Paras Khati, and Sub-Engineer Ganeshraj Regmi.

The CIAA charge sheet states that the then Acting Chief Administrative Officer Kalpana Kumari Thakulla should also be fined and imprisoned according to the amount established.

The then Accountant Nawaraj Joshi and the buyer Shyam Bahadur Khatri have been individually fined and sentenced.

The then Education Officer of the municipality Jayaraj Neupane, Assistant Sub-Engineer Bhimraj Giri, Deputy Technical Assistant Siddraj Jaishi and Administration Assistant Basanta Bahadur Thapa have been jointly fined and sentenced.

The CIAA has stated that the contractor company Jagriti/MK Nepal JV Dhangadhi and its managing director Pushkar Rokaya and representative Surat Bahadur Shah have been jointly fined and imprisoned.

Under the approved annual program of 2078/79, a budget of Rs 30 million was allocated for ‘City Building Construction’ and the initial cost estimate was Rs 115.625 thousand 333.

The cost estimate was revised to Rs 122.481,387.81 paisa. The bid was invited through a public notice on 30 Ashad 2078. The CIAA's charge sheet states that a plan was made to award the contract to a certain company in collusion and Jagriti was awarded the contract accordingly. 

The municipality had awarded the contract for the construction of the municipality building to the company on 18 Ashad 2078 for 99.451,369.69 paisa. However, the contractor company submitted documents for the work completed on 25 Chaitra 2080 in collusion and showed a cost of Rs 102.214,612 and the same amount was paid by the municipality, according to the CIAA's charge sheet. The Authority has described the actions as “maliciously changing the evaluation and qualification conditions and criteria approved in the bidding documents through phased amendments, and adding the condition of special work experience to the work unrelated to the construction of the building as a mandatory condition for the site visit, in violation of the prevailing law on public procurement, with the aim of deliberately limiting competition from the first amendment.”

‘The documents of the government agency were illegally manipulated, tax exemptions were mentioned in the manipulated documents, the bid score of the targeted bidder was adjusted to be below the cost estimate, and the planned works were awarded by collusion through false reports, the bid acceptance, contract agreement and payment were made, limiting competition, and the highest bidder was awarded the contract by Jagriti/M.K./Nepal JV, who failed the qualified lowest bidder based on the conditions set against the law, resulting in the defendants benefiting and causing loss and damage to the government property of the Government of Nepal/Provincial Government/Budhiganga Municipality,’ the charge sheet filed by the Authority in the court states.