KATHMANDU, Dec 18: Public Account Committee under the House of Representatives has decided to request Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to investigate the misappropriation regarding the procurement of medical appliances to respond the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the Committee’s meeting held with the participation of Minister for Health and Population Bhanubhakta Dhakal on Friday, the PAC decided to write CIAA for necessary probe into the matter.
PAC Secretary Dr Rojnath Pandey shared the PAC concluded that the procurement process of medical appliances was not in compliance with the regulations and officials involved in the procurement process were suspected to have embezzled.
Hence, the PAC decided to write to the anti-graft body for bringing the culprits to book.
The preliminary investigation into the case showed that an agreement was made with the Ministry of Health and Population after the procurement process was forwarded directly without determining the source of budget and preparing estimated cost of the medical supplies to be brought from China.
Furthermore, the PAC said that there was no any role of the Evaluation Committee as provisioned in the Procurement Act and it was found that health experts were not involved in the procurement process.
Also, it has been found that the departmental chief abused the authority by involving irrelevant persons in the procurement process instead of taking the lead in the process himself.
Meanwhile, Minister Dhakal said that he was ready to serve punishment if he was proven to be involved in the irregularities.
“I am ready to face any punishment if I am proven to be a culprit in the irregularities regarding procurement of the medical supplies.”
