PAC to summon secretaries for reviving Airbus deal

KATHMANDU, Jan 26: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the parliament is preparing to summon secretaries of concerned ministries and secretary of Public Procurement Monitoring Office to discuss the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA)´s request to revive the procurement deal with Airbus.



The meeting of PAC on Thursday decided to summon concerned officials before allowing MoTCA to go ahead with the proposal. [break]



MoTCA is preparing to revive the plans to procure two aircraft from Airbus Company following the letter of French Embassy dispatched to MoTCA and Ministry of Foreign Affairs about a month ago.



According to MoTCA officials, the letter stated that the procurement could be done at the same price quoted by Airbus in 2009. The Airbus had quoted US $ 41 million and US $ 93 million for narrow body and wide body aircraft respectively.



Speaking at the meeting on Thursday, Tourism Minister Lokendra Bista Magar said that if the deal falls through, two new aircrafts could be procured within a few months.

Lawmakers at the meeting said that it was important to study the legal aspects about whether or not the deal could be revived.



PAC had earlier directed the government to cancel the procurement citing irregularities in 2009.

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