Commission Files Corruption Case Against Former Vice-Chancellor of Rapti Health Sciences Academy and 18 Others

Kathmandu. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case at the Special Court against former Vice-Chancellor of Rapti Health Sciences Academy, Dang, Prof. Dr. Sangita Singh Bhandari, and 18 others.

The commission filed the case on Thursday, accusing them of financial irregularities by procuring a substandard CT scan machine during its purchase at the academy.

The commission has named 19 defendants, including Vice-Chancellor Bhandari, former Registrar Kailash Prasad Dev, Director Dr. Sagar Panthi, the Head of the Radiology Department, biomedical engineers, procurement branch employees, and the director of the supplier company, 'Himalayan Meditech Pvt. Ltd.'

The CIAA concluded that the academy acted in bad faith, contrary to the Public Procurement Act and Regulations, while proceeding with the purchase of a 128-slice CT scan machine. Spokesperson Suresh Neupane stated that the investigation revealed the defendants colluded to prepare the 'specification' with the intent of awarding the contract to a specific company, and subsequently accepted and paid for a machine that did not meet the specified standards.

The commission concluded that the Government of Nepal and the academy suffered a loss of NPR 7 crore 31 lakh 82 thousand 9 hundred 85 in this case. Claiming the same amount as compensation, the CIAA has sought recovery of the compensation amount, imprisonment, and fines from the defendants.