Special Court Orders Evidence Collection in Corruption Case Involving Former Health Services Director General

Kathmandu. An order has been issued to collect evidence in the corruption case involving the former Director General of the Department of Health Services, Dr. Sangeeta Kaushal Mishra, and others. The order for preliminary hearing was issued by the bench comprising Special Court judges Narayan Prasad Poudel, Dilliratna Shrestha, and Bidur Koirala, according to the court's information officer, Yagyaraj Regmi.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed a corruption case against Mishra and 14 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 Bhuvanprasad 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. It is alleged that 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 winning bidder Maxim Incorporation Traders Pvt. Ltd., and this estimate was abnormally inflated.

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.