Rana´s disclosures raise important questions: Why weren´t the APCs checked for ISO standards during the time of delivery? And when it became obvious that the APCs were vintage Soviet-era and would be of no use, why were the payments made anyway? Who took the decision? Was it just police headquarters or did the political leadership at the Home Ministry have a hand in clearing the payments? The APC purchase decision was taken when NC leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula was the home minister and Umesh Mainali was home secretary. So questions have also been raised about Sitaula and Mainali, and they, as people heading the home ministry at the time of the purchase decision, now have a moral responsibility to tell the public their side of the story as Rana has done.
We are not in any position to point fingers but it has become clear that huge corruption has occurred in the purchase of the APCs. Investigations by parliament´s state affairs committee alleged that over 300 million rupees was misappropriated in the purchase and the committee has forwarded its report to the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) for further investigation and action. Unfortunately, it has been more than nine months since the committee forwarded the report to the anti-graft body, but the latter hasn´t expedited further investigations.
There are suspicions that the CIAA has put the case on the back burner due to political pressure. This is unfortunate if true. We urge the CIAA to take up the case with urgency and start inquiring with people who are possibly involved in the scam. This is too big a case, both for the scale of the corruption involved and its implications -- it has put our men in uniform in harm´s way and tarnished the image of the country in the eyes of the international community-- to be swept under the carpet.
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