CIAA seizes municipality’s documents on charge of COVID-19 fund irregularities

Kathmandu - The Kanchanpur office of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) seized the documents of Patan municipality office in Baitadi district. Acting on the complaints related to irregularities in the name of coronavirus control and prevention, the anti-graft body took the municipality’s documents under control, shared Information Officer of CIAA Kanchanpur, Harishchandra Joshi.

He further said the documents were seized following oral and written complaints about irregularities of funds in course of the management of coronavirus infection. It may be noted that the municipality had made public the expenses of Rs 17.3 million for the prevention and control of coronavirus in the fiscal year. A probe committee was formed under the coordination of municipal assembly member Bhim Dutta Bhatta to investigate into the alleged irregularities.

Making public the report on September 25, the probe committee drew a conclusion that there was mismanagement of over Rs 5.31 million amount. Based on the report and complaints, the CIAA team had seized the documents with details of procurement of relief materials and risk mitigation measures. “All the documents have been taken under control acting on the findings of the probe committee report”, he said.

“The investigation will also be territorial”, he added. The probe committee had claimed that the people’s representatives and employees have been involved in irregularities regarding the use of vehicles. Launching the report, the probe committee had urged the municipality to retrieve embezzled amounts indicated in the report. Mayor Keshab Bahadur Chand had pledged to investigate into the irregularity charge and retrieve the amount from the concerned representatives if found guilty.