Himal Press 
POKHARA: Former Gandaki Province Health Minister Laxman Bahadur Pandey and Health Secretary Dr Yuvanidhi Basoula have been implicated in allegations of negotiating a bribe in connection with the upgrading of a hospital.
Journalist Apil Tripathi recently made the alleged scandal public through his YouTube channel Gandaki Chhadke.
The Gandaki provincial government has formed an investigation committee to probe the incident and decided to remove the health secretary from his current responsibilities for the time being.
The provincial cabinet has decided to assign Dr Basoula to the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers on deputation until further arrangements are made.
In an audio clip published by several media outlets, then Health Minister Pandey, Secretary Dr Basoula and the minister’s personal secretary, Yadav Poudel, can be heard allegedly negotiating a payment while granting permission to upgrade Pokhara-based Padma Nursing Home from a 50-bed to a 100-bed hospital.
The provincial government has formed a three-member investigation committee led by an undersecretary at the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers.
The committee was formed after allegations emerged of financial transactions amounting to around Rs 3 million in connection with the expansion and renewal of the hospital’s bed capacity.
The committee will submit its investigation report within 15 days.
According to provincial government spokesperson and Minister for Economic Affairs Jit Bahadur Sherchan, the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers has also decided to write to the Pokhara office of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to investigate the matter.
As the case is currently under investigation, the cabinet has also decided not to implement or allow implementation of the approval for the hospital upgrade until the allegations of irregularities are clarified.
Pandey, who represents CPN-UML, was at the helm of the provincial health ministry until the last week of August when UML decided to walk out of the ruling coalition with the Nepali Congress (NC) in the province.
Meanwhile, the CPN-UML has formed its own investigation committee to probe the alleged bribery case. The UML Provincial Assembly parliamentary party formed a three-member committee led by Chief Whip Devaka Pahari Tripathi.
The other members are Bed Bahadur Gurung (Shyam), a member of the UML parliamentary party and its parliamentary board, and Dhananjaya Dawadi, secretary of the UML Gandaki Province Committee and a former provincial assembly member.
Former minister Pandey has denied the allegations.
The government-appointed committee said it will also investigate the permits by the Health Ministry over the past two years, as well as the legal provisions and practices governing hospital upgrades.
