Five companies had applied for the tender. The management committee on Sunday canceled the tender after controversies erupted over it, according to manager of the center Birendra Kumar Das. [break]
He said the printing tasks will come to a total halt as the paper in stock will finish in a day or two. He said the center was supposed to have completed the printing task by now but it has become uncertain after the cancellation of the tender.
Das said a decision has been taken to award Shah Paper India to supply 800 tons of paper for the time being. Once the paper arrives, printing job will resume. He added that a fresh global tender will be opened for paper supply.
A management committee member accused some other members of the committee of taking commission from the bidders.
The committee has education secretary Dipendra Bikram Thapa as chairman and director of department of education Haribol Bhattarai, center manager Das and deputy manager Ram Chandra Silwal are members of the committee.
The member said other members had taken up to Rs 1 million commissions from the bidders and there was a competition among themselves to award the tender to the company from which they had taken commission.
Everest and Bhrikuti Paper Mills had offered to supply the paper at Rs 82,300 per ton while Shah Paper India had offered to supply the paper at Rs 75,000 per ton.
The member claimed that Everest and Bhrikuti had bribed Thapa and Khanal and other JEMC officials to secure the tender. He said the controversy surfaced after they tried to disqualify Shah Paper India. Once the printing task halts, over 1,200 staff of the center will also have no work to do.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has also been probing alleged irregularities in the JEMC.
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