In its charge sheet, the CIAA has claimed that Rs 57.3 million was misused in the deal and the loss incurred in the deal should be recovered from Kangsakar.
According to the findings of CIAA investigation, the decision to release and forward Rs 57.3 million to Airbus was taken without the approval of the NAC board of directors. [break]
"The decision to forward non-refundable commitment money [also known as ´lock up money´] worth of Rs 57.3 million to the aircraft manufacturer was taken under Kansakar´s direct orders. Our investigation concludes that Kansakar grossly misused his authority while taking the decision to release and forward non-refundable money to Airbus," states the charge-sheet filed at the Special Court.
Concluding that some five other high-ranking NAC officials enrougaged Kansakar, the anti-graft body has also filed cases against Acting Assistant General Managers Raju Bahadur KC and Ganesh Thakur, Acting Director Gyanendra Purush Dhakal, Director Mayur Sumsher Rana and Acting Deputy Director Keshav Raj Sharma on the charge of encouraging Kansakar.
According to the CIAA, Kansakar and the five officials misused Rs 57.3 million while deciding to buy two aircraft from Airbus flouting the Public Procurement Act.
"They released the non-refundable amount to the Airbus bypassing sensitive legal procedures. They didn´t follow due legal provisions of the Public Procurement Act. Our investigation proved that Kansakar and his accomplices decided to forward commitment money without seeking approval from NAC board of directors. Prompted by ill-intention, they signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Airbus, although Public Procurement Act doesn´t allow them to do so.," reads the charge-sheet.
The charge-sheet further accuses Kansakar and the five officials of causing loss to the vulnerable NAC by sending non-refundable money to Airbus. "They ignored competitive bidding procedure, accountability and credible mechanism while signing the deal," accuses the charge-sheet.
"All those accused in the charge-sheet have been absconding for the last three months," Dilli Raman Acharya, chief investigation officer told Republica, adding, "All of them ignored our summons for October 4, 2010. They never came to the CIAA despite repeated summons."
CIAA has sought 8-10 years imprisonment for Kansakar and 4-5 years for the five other officials.
"The loss worth of Rs 57.3 million incurred in the deal must be recovered from Kansakar. He should be sentenced to 8-10 years jail as per Clause 17 and 24 of the Anti-Corruption Act 2059 BS," reads the charge-sheet.
The constitutional anti-graft body had started probe into the NAC decision in August after the deal came under fire from the Parliament´s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Ministry of Finance (MoF).
On October 2, 2009, NAC had decided to buy a wide-body Airbus A330-200 and a narrow-body A320-200 and forwarded lock-up money worth $750,000 to the aircraft manufacturer.
However, PAC and MoF that investigated into the case had concluded that NAC flouted existing laws and instructed it to scrap the deal. They had further questioned NAC´s intention in forwarding the lock-up money before getting government guarantee and arranging finances.
NAC was planning to procure the aircraft by taking Rs 10 billion in loan from the Employees Provident Fund, but the manager of the Fund had set government guarantee as pre-condition for issuing loan to the ailing national flag carrier.
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