KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 4The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a chargesheet at the Special Court against 13 persons, including former vice-chairperson of Ganganath Rural Municipality, Rolpa, for their alleged involvement in corruption on the pretext of carrying out development activities during their tenure. Three, including CAO, booked for graft Govt employee booked for graft Those sued by the anti-graft body are former vice-chairperson Rita Gharti, Chief Administrative Officer Sakal Dev Yadav, planning officer Krishna Bahadur Gharti, engineer Nabin Dangi, sub-engineer Roshani Bista, technician Bal Bahadur Basnet, chair of ward 2 Bhumap Damai, ward member Tika BK, another ward member Gan Bahadur Bhandari, secretary Kul Bahadur Yogi and officer-bearers of user's committee, including Man Bahadur Dangi, Kadak Bahadur Dangi and Chandra Kumari Dangi.According to a press release issued by the CIAA, they had colluded to embezzle Rs 466,488 in the course of constructing a solar pumping water supply project from Ward No 2 through the user's committee during the fiscal 2019-20.

The CIAA had launched a thorough investigation into the case after it received a corruption complaint. During the probe, it was found that rural municipality officials and others prepared a measurement book showing that more work had been accomplished than the actual work in the construction of project facilities, and that the CAO had approved the measurement book without confirming the quantity and quality of construction work.Similarly, the office-bearers of the user group had received payment claiming that the road construction was in line with the measurement book prepared by the engineer and sub-engineers, and approved by the CAO.

As per the anti-graft body, the CAO had sanctioned the payment even for work they had never carried out.According to the CIAA, the defendants had worked in collusion to embezzle state funds meant for development activities in the local level.Each defendant has been charged under section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2002, seeking maximum punishment under the law along with recovery of the amount in question from each of them.A version of this article appears in the print on October 5, 2023, of The Himalayan Times .

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