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Stop Process Of Buying Airbus
By KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
On December 28, 2009, the Legislative Committee on Public Accounts has ordered the government to annul the deal the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has reached with the French Airbus Company, as it goes against the Public Procurement Act. The Provident Fund of the government employees has agreed on providing the NAC with the loan of Rs 10 billion for purchasing two airbus planes with the government’s guarantee of repayment of the loan. The NAC has already made an advance payment of US$ 750,000 to the Airbus Company. Stating the advance payment to the Airbus Company goes against the Public Purchase Act, the Legislative Committee on Public Accounts has asked the Prime Minister, Cabinet Secretariat, and Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation for taking actions against the decision maker of the advance payment and informed about it to the Legislative Committee on Public Accounts.
The Chairman and the Managing Director have been at odds with each other on purchasing two planes required for the survival of the NAC. The Chairman has been for buying wide body planes whereas the Managing Director has been for buying another type of planes. The Managing Director has even gone to the court seeking the court’s assistant in doing away the encroachment of the Chairman on his authority. However, the Chairman has the blessings of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation.
In the early 1990s immediately after becoming the Prime Minister, Girija Prasad Koirala sold two brand new planes the then-RNAC had had and took two old planes in lease for pocketing millions of rupees as commissions on both selling planes and taking planes in lease causing the infamous ‘Dhamija scandal’. Since then, the NAC has the problem of survival. The Thai Airlines and the NAC were born on the same day in 1958, the Thai airlines has numerous planes whereas the NAC has almost nothing now thanks to the Girija Prasad Koirala administration.
