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Catching Small Fishes Leaving Big Ones Out of Net
By KTM Metro Reporter
December 26, 2010: hearing on the case filed by the Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) against the Executive Chairman of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) and its five other officials, a full bench of Special Court Chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki and members Om Prakash Sharma and Kedar Prasad Chalise has summoned Executive Chairman of NAC Sugat Ratna Kansakar, and five other officials such as Acting Deputy Director General Raju Bahadur KC‚ Acting Deputy Managing Director Ganesh Thakur‚ Acting Director Gyanendra Purush Dhakal‚ Director Mayur Sumsher Rana and Assistant Director Keshav Raj Sharma implicated in the irregularities in paying an advance to the European Airbus manufacturer for the purchase of one narrow-body aircraft and a wide body aircraft to appear before the court within 15 days.
The CIAA has filed a case on Friday, December 24, 2010 against the six NAC officials for their alleged involvement in the irregularities in using Rs 57.3 million in the deal on the Airbus purchase, and has charged them of not following the Public Procurement Act of 2006 paying the non-refundable advance to the Airbus company without seeking the approval of NAC board of directors.
Following the Anti-Corruption Act of 2002, the Special Court hearing on any corruption-related cases needs to deliver the rulings on such cases within six months from the date of filing of the cases.
Officiating Prime Minister Madhav Nepal and his officiating Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Shard Sing Bhandari have been putting pressure on the management of the NAC to buy the airplanes as soon as possible rather as long as they in the power to have the share in the commissions they will receive from the deal on the purchase of the plans. So, the CIAA needs to catch these big fishes bringing them in the net of corruption cases rather than the management team that has to follow the orders from those unscrupulous ministers putting their integrity at risk. Officiating Prime minister Madhav Nepal and his ministers have earned the reputation of being the worst possible corrupt ministers in the Nepalese administration so far. Corruption is deeply rooted at the ministerial level. So, the CIAA needs to uproot the institutionalized corruption at the Prime Minister’s and other ministers’ offices rather than going to the management level that is the most vulnerable to the pressure of the ministers.
At the same time, the staffs of the NAC have continued their indefinite strike grounding all domestic flights since December 15 until their demands are met. The staffs have been demanding to revoke the decision of Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) on issuing the permit to the UAE-based Air Arabia for operating the flights on the Kathmandu-Kuala Lumpur route. They have also demanded to purchase planes immediately for running the international flights. Issuing permits to different international routes is a juicy business for the Prime Minister and the ministers.
