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Nepal Telecom is considered as the backbone of the nation's wealth, people's investment and public service delivery. But this telecom is now involved in a corruption case of more than 33 crore rupees.
The case filed by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority has once again exposed the fact that syndicates and settings within public institutions have held the administration hostage.
At the root of this case is the procurement process of Telecom's billing system, in which the contract was awarded by circumventing the regulatory process and the Public Procurement Act. The authority together with the Chinese company Asian Info Yunghang Software (Beijing) Limited (former Asian Info Linkage Technologies Inc) has filed a case in the special court on 25th May 2082 with 7 government officials, 2 contractors and a Chinese company as opponents, judging that there was an irregularity in the procurement of billing software.
According to the details registered in the court, it is clear that this procurement process was carried out in a non-competitive manner, equipment with different systems were forced in and an environment was created where open competition was prevented. This begs the question – is this just a technical error? Or a web of deep collusion, bribery and access?
Not only Nepal Telecom, similar cases have been seen time and again in public institutions in the past few years. Even up to the Melamchi water supply project, the Nepal Railway Department or the Electricity Authority, the same pattern of setting culture has been repeated.
These trends have not only affected Nepal's service delivery system, but have also lost public trust in public property. When corruption thrives in an institution run by people's taxes, it calls into question the very meaning of social morality and governance.
This episode raises three serious questions. First, why is the implementation of the Public Procurement Act weak? Secondly, will the investigation of the authority be fair, quick and effective or will it be kept in the drawer again? Third, what are the policy mechanisms to prevent the tendency to use public services for private gain?
If there is to be true reform in public institutions, there should be no delay in creating policy and legal structures that break the cycle of such collusion.
– Santosh Simkhada , Tokyo, Japan
