The cabinet meeting held at Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal´s official residence, Baluwatar on Wednesday evening decided to issue a 15-day tender notice instead of 30 invoking clause 67 of the Public Procurement Act as proposed by Home Minister Bhim Rawal. [break]
According to Law and Justice Minister Prem Bahadur Singh, the cabinet has also decided to implement the recommendation of the State Affairs Committee of Parliament´s to take action against those involved in the APC procurement scam.
As per the cabinet decision, a five-member probe panel headed by Chief of Public Procurement and Monitoring Office Abanindra Kumar Shrestha would be formed to investigate into the scam.
Two separate investigation teams one led by lawmaker Pradip Gyawali and another led by Home Ministry officials had concluded that around Rs 300 million was embezzled while procuring APCs and other logistics for Nepali peacekeepers two years ago.
According to government Spokesperson Shankar Pokharel, a joint attorney general, a joint secretary from the Home Ministry, joint auditor general and joint secretary from the Ministry of Law and Justice will be the members of the probe panel. The probe panel has to submit its report within 10 days to the Prime Minister´s Office (PMO).
"The probe panel has been mandated to investigate into the areas that are beyond the jurisdiction of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA)," said Minister Singh.
Earlier in the morning, Prime Minister Nepal had consulted law minister, law secretary and three deputy attorney generals on ways to be followed for procurement of APCs.
The cabinet has also decided to respond to the letter from UN asking the government to supply APCs and other logistics at the earliest through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As per the cabinet decision, the Home Ministry will also issue working guidelines before procuring new APCs and other logistics for the Nepali peacekeepers in Sudan.
The government is under pressure to procure new lot of APCs urgently to prevent possible repatriation of the Nepali blue helmets deployed in Darfur, Sudan by the UN Department of the Peacekeeping Operation as they have been working without APCs.
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