Nepal: Corruption case filed against 18 people including telecom chief
By Shirish B Pradhan
Kathmandu: Nepal's anti-graft body on Sunday filed a corruption case against 18 people including former and incumbent managing directors of the government-owned
Nepal Telecom
.
The case was filed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (
CIAA
) at the Special Court over alleged irregularities in the contract extension for maintaining Nepal Telecom's billing system, according to CIAA spokesperson Rajendra Kumar Paudel.
Sangita Pahadi
, Managing Director (MD) of Nepal Telecom, and former MD
Sunil Paudel
were among the 18 people against whom the case was filed.
The case was filed over alleged billing irregularities in Nepal Telecom's GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile, fibre internet, leased line, and wire lines due to illegal purchases and sales.
"There was bad faith in the purchase of related equipment and also the misappropriation of public assets," the CIAA stated.
The anti-graft body has demanded a compensation claim of Rs 334.8 million against the defendants.
Investigations found that Nepal Telecom awarded a contract worth NRs. 3.15 billion to Chinese company Asia Info around two and a half years ago without following proper procedure, causing a huge loss to the state-owned telecom. PTI
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