The panel headed by Hari Prasad Basyal, administrative director at the Department of Education (DoE), has been instructed to submit its investigation report within 10 days. The panel, which has Financial Controller of MoE Yoga Raj Pokharel and Legal Officer Keshav Raj Pande as members, has been ordered to start its task right from Saturday, a public holiday, keeping in view the strict timeframe given by PAC. [break]
"MoE instructed the probe panel to immediately start its task as PAC has given us a very short period of time," Janardan Nepal, spokesperson of MoE, told myrepublica.com. PAC has stated that it will carry out a separate probe into the alleged irregularities if it does not find MoE´s investigation satisfactory.
The Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB), responsible for conducting plus-two exams, has been accused of printing ´low quality answer sheets in fewer than the set number´, for a commission.
HSEB had awarded the contract for printing 4.425 million answer sheets for the 700,000 students appearing in this year´s grade XI and XII exams, to a joint venture of Om Shiva Printing Press and Surya Deep Press of Kathmandu. However, a number of exam centers in several districts complained that they got fewer answer sheets than they were supposed to.
It is learnt that the press that won the contract printed 600,000 fewer answer sheets, in connivance with HSEB officials.
The HSEB officials, particularly Vice-chairman Upendra Koirala and Member-Secretary Ram Bahadur Khadka, have been accused of gaining Rs 3 million by printing fewer answer sheets.
HSEB´s alleged irregularities were exposed after two members of its Evaluation Committee objected to the decision to award the tender to Om Shiva and Surya Deep Press.
Kameshwar Mandal and Padam Raj Pathak did not sign the decision of the Evaluation Committee -- entrusted with choosing the lowest bidder-- to select Om Shiva and Surya Deep Press. The latter had proposed to print each copy of the answer sheets at the cost of Rs 4.89.
A day after PAC summoned Member Secretary of HSEB Khadka, the parliamentary committee grilled Mandal and Pathak over their objection to HSEB´s decision.
Mandal maintained that he was opposed to the decision mainly over two points: the winning press failed to submit three years´ audit reports and the notary public, who certified the documents for On Shiva and Surya Deep Press, happened to be managing director of the contract winner.
"The Public Procurement Act-2007 has been visibly violated," Mandal told myrepublica.com. "Therefore, the fact that the press winning the contract proposed the lowest price does not matter." He asserted that the winning press printed fewer answer sheets in collusion with HSEB officials to keep its costs down.
According to Rabindra Adhikari, a PAC member, the parliamentary body also found that HSEB has cleared payment dues to the press despite the disclosure of fewer answer sheets being printed. However, an HSEB official denied the allegation. "We are yet to clear the payment," he told myrepublica.com.
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