Corruption Case Against Former Health Services Director General Set for Hearing at Special Court

The corruption case involving former Director General of the Department of Health Services, Dr. Sangita Kaushal Mishra, has been scheduled for a hearing at the Special Court.

The hearing is set before the bench of Special Court judges Narayan Prasad Paudel, Dilliratna Shrestha, and Bidur Koirala. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed the corruption case against Mishra and 13 others at the Special Court on Kartik 2, 2082, alleging irregularities and corruption in the procurement process for a mammography machine at the Department of Health Services.

The corruption case was registered against Mishra, along with Dr. Shrawankumar Thapa, Director of the Management Division of Health Services; Director Vivek Kumar Lal; Senior Health Administrator Dr. Surendra Prasad Chaurasia; Chief Accounts Controller Bhuwan Prasad Kafle; Sundar Bhusal, Founder-Operator of Maxim Incorporation Traders Pvt. Ltd.; and other employees and engineers.

The accusation is that they colluded from the preparation of the cost estimate to the disbursement of payment, causing a loss of over approximately 140 million Nepali Rupees to the state. The cost estimate was prepared based on the rate obtained from Shubha Biomedical Concern Pvt. Ltd., another company founded by Sundar Bhusal, the founder of the contracting company Maxim Incorporation Traders Pvt. Ltd., which was an unrealistically high rate.

The approved cost estimate, excluding tax, was 127.5 million Nepali Rupees, while the supplier had bid for the contract at 125.5 million Nepali Rupees.

The CIAA mentioned in the charge sheet that the total price payable to the manufacturing company was confirmed to be only about 68.5 million Nepali Rupees.