This post explains all notable aviation corruption scandals in Nepal. Some notable ones are Wide-body kanda, Lauda kanda, Dhamija kanda.
Wide Body Kanda 2017
In 2017, Purchase of two wide-body Airbus A330 jets by Nepal Airlines caused Rs 4.35 billion (US $209.6 million) loss, as per PAC report.
2015 Aug: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) led by Managing director Saugat Ratna Kansakar started the process of buying 2 wide body plane.
2016 Sep 11: finance ministry agreed to act as a guaranteer of the loan to procure 2 jets.
2016 Sep 24: NAC board approved management plan to procure 2 A330-200.
2016 Sep 26: NAC invited worldwide sealed request for proposal (REP). The specification was airplane could not be older than 1,000 flight hour and manufactured before 2014 Jan.
2016 Nov 10: 11 international forms submitted bids.
2017 Apr 7: NAC signed a $209.6-million contract for two Airbus A330-200 jets with the United States-based "AAR Corp" marking the largest ever jet purchase deal in Nepal aviation history.
Citizen Investment Trust (CIT) and Employees Provident Fund (EPF) delayed the loan, and NRB delayed foreign exchange facility. Due to delay in funds two earlier planned planes were sold to different buyers by the seller.
Hi fly (consortium of AAR Corp) had ordered two A330-200 during Paris air show. Those planes, whose specifications were slightly different, were to arrive Nepal instead of the original ordered planes.
2018 June 28: NAC received the first A330s, named Annapurna from Portuguese company Hi Fly.
2018 July: Second of two A330-200 named Makalu arrived.
2018 Sep 27: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of House of Representatives decided to start investigation on the wide body deal. PAC meeting headed by its chairman Bharat Kumar Shah, and attended by members Hridayesh Tripathi, Birodh Khatiwada, Rajendra Kumar KC, Prem Bahadur Ale, Pushpa Kumari Karna Kayastha, Dharmashila Chapagain, etc.
2019 Jan 1: subcommittee under PAC submitted its report to PAC, concluding that the state lost Rs 4.35 billion in the deal. The report accuse NAC MD Kansakar, Civil Aviation Minister Rabindra Adhikari, his predecessors Jitendra Narayan Dev and Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, and Civil Aviation Secretary Krishna Prasad Devkota and his predecessors Shankar Prasad Adhikari and Prem Kumar Rai in the case.
2019 Jan 4: PAC subcommittee remove Prem Kumar Rai (current Home Secretary) from guilty list of their report. Rai was tourism secretary and ex officio chairman of the NAC board from February 1, 2016 to September 12, 2016 when procurement process was initiated.
Links
the Kathmandu post 1 | TKP 2 | onlinekhabar
Lauda Air Bhrastachar (Girija Pd Koirala) 2000
RNAC leased Boeing 767 from Lauda Air for 18 months without any tenders. Total Rs 160 million suspected to be distributed among people involved for a period of 18 months.
Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) leased 12-year-old jet Boeing 767 from Austrian Lauda Air for 18 months at the rate of $3,500 per flying hour without any tenders. Including "hidden costs", the cost of leasing the jet was to be to $3,900/ flying hour. According to the agreement signed, RNAC would hire a minimum of five sets of Austrian pilots for additional of $350 per flying hour as well as board and lodging at a four-star hotel for those pilots.
$400 per flying hour was suspected to be distributed among people involved, which would be total Rs 160 million for a period of 18 months. Of the $400 per hour, half is expected to go to a political fund, $100 to the Lauda Air agent in Nepal and some businessmen, $50 to high officials in RNAC and the remaining $50 to middlemen who helped clinch the deal.
2001 May: Commission for the Investigation the Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed corruption cases against ten officials including former Nepal's tourism minister Tarini Dutta Chataut and two senior officials of Austria's Lauda Air for "corruption and irregularities" amounting to Rs.380.3 million (US$5.11 million). Other accused are executive chairman of Royal Nepal Airlines Hari Bhakta Shrestha and board director Tirtha Lal Shrestha.
The six-month investigation had also involved Nepal's prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala who challenged the Commission's authority to question him in a letter.
Ten opposition parties have called a three-day nation-wide strike calling for Koirala's resignation for his alleged involvement in leasing a Boeing 767 aircraft to RNAC at inflated prices.
Dhamija Kanda (Girija Prasad Koirala) 1995
In 1995, CIAA investigated against then PM Girija P Koirala for the appointment of Dinesh Dhamija in RNAC Europe sector for personal benefit. Koirala got clean chit, where as many RNAC officials were held accountable.
1995: Case filed in CIAA against PM Girija P Koirala for the appointment of Dinesh Dhamija (managing director of a British company Fair Limited) as the new General Sales Agent for the European sector, for his personal benefit. The accusation was that Koirala had pressurized the RNAC board for the appointment. It was accused that the government had given Rs 12.6 million to Dhamija.
1996 Feb: CIAA gave a clean chit to Girija P Koirala citing that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to establish his involvement, while the rest of the officials and RNAC employees were held accountable.
Mr Dinesh Dhamija was the "Member of the European Parliament" for London and held office in during (2 July 2019 – 31 January 2020) until UK withdrew from the EU.