KATHMANDU, Feb 5: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) officials have claimed that Airbus Company has pledged to refund the commitment money -- also known as lockup money-- it has received for supplying airbus planes.
However, Joint Secretary Ranjan Aryal at the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism said he hasn´t yet seen the letter substantiating the NAC claim.
In October, 2009, NAC decided to buy two Airbus aircraft and forwarded US$750,000 (equivalent to Rs 57.3 million) in lock-up money to the manufacturer.
“We received a letter signed by Senior Vice-president of Airbus Christophe Mourey recently,” said a highly placed source at NAC on condition of anonymity.
According to the source, Airbus has asked NAC to furnish its bank account number.
The CIAA charge-sheet accuses Kansakar and five other officials of causing loss to NAC in sending non-refundable money to Airbus. "They ignored the need for a competitive bidding process, accountability and a credible mechanism while signing the deal to procure Airbus planes" the charge-sheet says.
“I cannot confirm whether the company has sent the letter to NAC. I should have been informed if it received any letter from Airbus,” Aryal said.
According to the CIAA investigation, the decision to forward the lockup money to Airbus was taken without approval by the NAC board.
Concluding that five other high-ranking NAC officials had abetted Kansakar, the anti-graft body 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.
According to the CIAA, Kansakar and the other officials misused $750,000 in deciding to buy aircraft from Airbus without adhering to the Public Procurement Act.
The CIAA has sought 8-10 years imprisonment for Kansakar and 4-5 years for the others.
The anti-graft body started probing the NAC decision after the deal came under fire at Parliament´s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and from the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
PAC and MoF had concluded that NAC flouted existing law and instructed it to scrap the deal. They questioned NAC´s intentions in forwarding lock-up money before getting a government guarantee and arranging the financing.
The other five accused have already appeared before the Special Court, but not Kansakar.
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=27927
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment