The commission had raided Gorkhapatra Corporation and seized documents related with news print procurement deal on Thursday.[break]
“We have begun a formal investigation into the matter by appointing an investigation officer,” informed CIAA source requesting to be unnamed. CIAA Spokesperson Ishwori Paudel was not available for comments.
The raid was conducted following a tip off concerning financial irregularities while purchasing newsprint for the dailies.
A complaint lodged at the CIAA states that the corporation purchased low quality news print by paying unusually high amount.
According to a CIAA source, the team from the anti-graft body seized documents related to news print quality, printing machine and ink to be used for the dailies. The team found a bundle of news print which was damaged by termite during its raid, said the source.
The CIAA team had inquired corporation officials about the damaged newsprint. “We were told that the damaged newsprint was never kept in a damp place. Preliminary investigation shows the newsprint could have been bought in a damaged state,” the source informed Republica. A team led by CIAA officer Dhruba Kumar Pokharel had inspected the newsprint.
Meanwhile, the corporation´s General Manager Shambhu Shrestha claimed the news print had been purchased through open bidding process and that there had been no irregularity in the procurement deal. Shrestha also claimed that a sample of the newsprint had been sent to the Bureau of Standards and Measurements for quality test before purchase.
“The corporation accepted the tender proposal on the basis of the test report from the bureau,” Shrestha claimed, adding, that the lowest bidder was selected to supply the newsprint.
The corporation had called a tender for the purchase of 1,000 metric tons of newsprint about one and a half year ago.
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