RAUTAHAT, May 20:  Five non-gazetted first class officers of Gaur Customs were found involved in the auction process of chemical fertilizer in the absence of the customs chief last Monday.

According to the sources, while the head of the customs Basudev Nepal was on vacation, the five non-gazetted first class officials called Nepal at the last moment after making all arrangements for the auction.

Nepal Police and Armed Police Force seized 1,306 sacks of chemical fertilizers from Rajpur Municipality-5 during the time when the head of customs was on vacation. The chemical fertilizers, which were illegally smuggled from India and stored in private warehouses, were seized by the customs officials  with the help of police.

It has been found that the five non-gazetted first class officials conspired to auction the same fertilizer. The officials Shivahari Niraula, Nabin Kumar Thakur, Gajendra Thapa, Nisha Sarraf and Rewati Rokka auctioned the fertilizer in a hurry for commission.

Customs chief Basudev Nepal said that the customs officials called him repeatedly while he was on vacation and urged him to auction  off the fertilizers arguing that the fertilizer would get  damaged as soon as the monsoon begins.

“After repeated phone calls, I told them to proceed ahead with the process and finally came in the evening and signed it in a hurry,” said Nepal.

The customs chief admitted that he had ‘good faith’ in the team running the office while he was on vacation but it was a mistake. He said that after the completion of the auction process from the customs office, they received a letter from the District Administration Office, Rautahat asking for documents for investigation.

Customs chief  Nepal said he found the errors only when he looked at the documents.

Jai Mata Di General Suppliers Gaur, JMD Suppliers Gaur and Jai Ma Durga Suppliers Rajpur were included in the auction process. Among them, it is understood that JMD and Jai Mata Di Suppliers have not acquired permission to deal in chemical fertilizers. It has been found that the officials of the Customs Office hastily proceeded with the auction process by misguiding the head of the office.

At least three official firms should participate in the auction process and according to the notice issued by the office, the amount required to be deposited in the bank was not even documented. The officials of the office auctioned the fertilizers worth more than Rs 2 million for just Rs 1 million. 

 
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