By Nirjal Dhungana
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has already termed Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC)-suspended Chairman Sugat Ratna Kansakar and other senior officials' decision to file a petition at the
Supreme Court (SC) against the anti-graft body as utterly irrational.
A group led by Kansakar filed a petition at the SC charging that CIAA has violated its prerogative by prosecuting them.
The CIAA has filed a case at the Special Court (SC) against Kansakar and other officials on charges of embezzling US$ 750,000.
The Authority sought 8-10 years imprisonment for him and 4-5 years for the other five officials under Clauses 17 and 24 of the Anti-corruption Act 2059 BS.
The CIAA filed the case against Kansakar along with six persons-NAC Deputy Managing Director Raju KC, Ganesh Thaku, Gyanendra Purush Dhakal, Mayur Shumsher Rana, and Keshav Raj Sharma- claiming their involvements regarding the advance provided to Airbus for aircraft purchase were unscrupulous.
The NAC had wired $750,000 to a bank in Paris on November 7, 2009 as commitment money for the purchase of the aircrafts.
In what can be termed as a gross irony, the government has, on the other hand, decided to compensate Indian state owned Security Printing and Mining Corporation for its reported losses due to the annulment of the deal on supply of four million machine readable passports (MRPs) to Nepal.
The cabinet meeting has already decided to fork out a gargantuan US$ 48,000 to offset the "losses" faced by the Indian firm.
In the aborted case of MPR, the already feeble state coffer has been forced to bear additional burden with the country getting not a single amount of benefit.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala was the major person who had displayed unnaturally high zeal to grant the job of printing the MRPs to the Indian firm.
But, the dodgy way in which the attempts were made to handover the project to the Indian firm resulted in an annulment of the deal. And, it has obviously caused a huge loss to the state coffer.
However, the concerned agencies of the state have shown flippancy towards taking necessary actions against Koirala and others who were involved in scandalous MRP deal, which eventually forced the country to reel under
brutal financial burden.
The decision on the part of the cabinet to sanctify the deputy Prime Minister by deciding to repay the Indian printing firm for its wasted papers and other tools just attests to the vicious circle of impunity dogging the country.
Another fact that validates how the state machineries are shielding powerful persons who have been involved in major financial crimes is the government's lethargy to arrest Rubel Chaudhary, son in law of deputy Prime Minster Koirala.
The Bangladeshi citizen has been facing many charges including call bypassing causing huge financial losses to Nepali telecom operators, misappropriation of Nepal Police Welfare fund during the purchase and supply of logistics to Sudan-based Nepal Police peacekeeping mission, misuse of his family visa and supply of fake Nepali passports to Bangladeshis.
Even the Supreme Court (SC) recently ordered the government authorities to furnish written clarification on the alleged controversial activities of Chaudhary.
The cases of Koirala, Kansakar and Chaudhary merit thorough legal scanning and it would be undoubtedly unfair to give "some special person" an extreme leeway to enjoy impunity . nepalnews.com
http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2011/others/feature/jan/feature_01.php
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