Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Sunday filed a corruption case at the Special Court, Kathmandu, accusing former ministers, senior government officials, and China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd of causing massive financial loss to the state during the construction of Pokhara International Airport.
The CIAA has named 55 individuals, including former Ministers for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation the late Post Bahadur Bogati, Ram Kumar Shrestha, Bhim Prasad Acharya, Dipak Chandra Amatya; former Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat; former secretaries; and former Director Generals of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Tri Ratna Manandhar, Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, and Pradeep Adhikari, on the charge sheet.
China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd, along with its key officials — Chairperson Wang Bo and Regional General Manager Liu Shengcheng — have also been named as defendants.
According to the CIAA, the accused acted with mutual collusion, planning, and intent to award the airport construction contract to CAMC Engineering despite the company being technically non-responsive and having failed the technical evaluation. The bid was still pushed forward through an illegal negotiation process that violated the Public Procurement Act (2006) and its Regulations (2007), the constitutional anti-graft body said in a statement.
The CIAA said two ad-hoc consultancy teams, which were formed without any legal basis, were used to justify the decision to negotiate with CAMC. The evaluation committee had itself reported CAMC as “substantively non-responsive,” yet the consultants’ recommendations were used as a pretext to proceed, the corruption watchdog said.
According to the CIAA, the approved cost estimate for the project, $169.697 million (including 3% contingency and 13% VAT), was unlawfully inflated by $74.343 million, revising the contract value to $244.040 million. The inflated figure was then used to make payments, resulting in financial loss to the government and the CAAN.
CIAA’s investigation concludes that the accused intentionally caused $74,343,450 (approximately Rs 8.36 billion) in illegal financial damage to the state. The CIAA is seeking to recover Rs 8.36 billion from the accused.
“Since these actions constitute corruption offenses as defined under Sections 8(1)(d), (e), and (f) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2002, a charge sheet has been filed against the accused at the Special Court,” CAAN said.
In line with a previous order of the Special Court, the CIAA has also decided to conduct separate investigations into additional irregularities linked to the Pokhara International Airport project.
It has appointed separate investigation officers for further probes into: a. alleged financial irregularities and corruption involving tax exemptions granted during the airport’s construction in violation of the original contract provisions; b. suspected irregular payments of Rs 320.2 million by the CAAN to a separate contractor for cutting the Ritthepani hill, despite the responsibility for completing all infrastructure necessary for full airport operation lying with the main contractor under the agreement; and c. irregularities in appointment of a consultant from its own budget by reportedly bypassing the $2.8 million consultancy provision included in the contract with China CAMC Engineering.
