Third Corruption Case Filed in Pokhara Airport Irregularities, Former Finance Minister Gyaneendra Bahadur Karki Named Accused

Kathmandu. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a third case in the Pokhara Regional International Airport construction irregularities. On Thursday, when the Commission filed the case in the Special Court, former Finance Minister Gyaneendra Bahadur Karki was also named as a defendant. Corruption cases have also been filed in the Special Court against two former secretaries and other high officials. Assistant Spokesperson Ganesh Bahadur Adhikari informed that the case was filed on the charge of causing a loss of Rs 3,62,05,22,160 to the state coffer by illegally granting tax exemption to the construction company. The original purchase agreement with the Chinese company 'China CAMC Engineering', which was awarded the contract for airport construction, clearly stipulated that the contractor company itself would have to pay taxes, duties, and other fees. However, the Commission found that the 'Implementation Agreement' was prepared contrary to that provision with the collusion of the then Finance Minister Karki, secretaries, and officials of the Civil Aviation Authority. The Commission claims that the new agreement included a clause to intentionally grant tax and duty exemption to the contractor company. It is stated that by making such an agreement, the contractor company would receive the amount allocated for taxes within the total cost of airport construction and would keep that amount for itself instead of depositing it in the state coffer. The Commission has determined that the Chinese company received double benefits and that public property taken by the Government of Nepal as a loan was misused. Other high officials against whom cases have been filed include former Finance Ministry Secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari, former Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary Maheshwar Neupane, and former Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal Sanjeev Gautam. They have been demanded to be fined and imprisoned equivalent to the embezzled amount as per the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2059. Similarly, cases have been filed against former Finance Ministry Joint Secretary Keshav Prasad Bhandari, former Tourism Ministry Joint Secretaries Suresh Acharya and Dunduraj Ghimire, and Project Director Pradip Adhikari with the same amount of embezzled claim. Former Finance Ministry Deputy Secretary Yugraj Pandey, Section Officer Urmila Bhandari, and Engineer Yogesh Aryal have also been implicated in this web of corruption. The Commission has also demanded that the Chairman of the construction entrepreneur 'China CAMC', Wang Bo, and Project Manager Yang Zhigang be punished and their embezzled amounts recovered, similar to the main culprits, for aiding in corruption. Earlier in March, the Commission had filed a case against former Tourism Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari, 21 individuals, and two companies as defendants. Similarly, in November, the Commission had filed a case against former Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministers Bhim Acharya, Ram Kumar Shrestha, Deepak Amatya, Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, and the late Post Bahadur Bogati as defendants. When the Commission filed the first case, it had presented details stating that investigations were underway regarding issues such as revenue exemption in Pokhara Airport construction and that cases would be filed soon.