An SAC meeting at Singha Durbar on Monday made the decision after there was a delay in filing cases against those fingered by a parliamentary probe team that made a field visit to Darfur where a team of Nepal Police is serving in UN peacekeeping mission.[break]
According to SAC chair Ram Nath Dhakal, the meeting will seek details as to why was the action not initiated so far and also progress made toward filing cases against those involved.
Nepal Police had procured APCs worth about Rs 455 million for its mission in Darfur when Krishna Prasad Sitaula was home minister. The parliamentary probe team had shown that over Rs 300 million was misappropriated while purchasing the ´non-functional´ APCs.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is currently investigating into the case as per the directives of the parliamentary probe committee. The decision to grill Home Minister Mahara comes in the wake of the anti-graft body making delay in filing cases.
Earlier, a cabinet meeting held on March 16 had decided to send the report to the CIAA for initiating legal action against those implicated by the parliamentary probe.
Though Deputy Prime Minister and home minister Mahara was briefly present at the SAC meeting on Monday, he told the meeting that he was yet to learn details involving APC scam. Mahara assumed his office only on last Wednesday.
The SAC meeting also directed National Vigilance Center (NVC) to submit a work plan within 15 days on ways to strengthen the NVC. Stating that the role of NVC had not been effective in curbing corruption and malpractices in government offices, the SAC members had asked NVC Secretary Tana Gautam about the problems and constraints of the NVC in fulfilling its duties.
Monday´s SAC meeting also decided to call the minister for general administration and secretaries at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and Ministry of Physical Planning and Works for Wednesday over ´arbitrary´ transfer of senior officials serving under the two ministries.
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