The CIAA has filed the case at the Special Court on Sunday against Under Secretaries Homnath Bhattarai and Ram Krishna Guragain and a non-gazetted officer Yuvaraj Giri.The CIAA has asked the court to fine the officials as well as recoup the embezzled amount of Rs 23.6 million from them.
The commission has also filed cases against Hansharam Pandey, the director of Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries, and the proprietors of the various suppliers companies, Sunil Kumar Gautam, Ram Sharan Kunwar, Krishna Hari Chaulagain and Motilal Pokharel accusing them of misappropriating funds.
Meanwhile, the commission has directed the government to take departmental action against other officials ensnared in the same case.
The ministry's Secretary Arjun Kumar Karki, Joint Secretary Basudev Guragain, Procurement Committee Chief and Director General of Urban Development Department Shambhu KC as well as committee members Nilam Kumar Dangol and Narayan Niraula have been recommended for departmental action.
Instead of involving companies that supply tents, the commission has charged, the accused officials hired contractors that had been supplying stationeries and performing maintenance jobs to procure tents and tarpaulin, allowing them to charge vastly more than they would in a free market.
The commission has claimed that Pandey of FNCCI had provided a fabricated rate of tents and tarpaulin to the government, which helped the suppliers to win the procurement contract.
The CIAA has also claimed that the purchased tents and tarpaulins were of sub-standard quality.
The ministry had purchased tents and tarpaulins for people left homeless by the April 25 earthquake.
The CIAA had launched investigation since the second week of June following complaints about irregularities in the procurement process.
Related story
Corruption control is a challenge: PM
