The parliamentary subcommittee started investigation into the bank account as all the authority to transact is given to Shambhu Bharati, proprietor of Bhagwati Traders. Bhagwati Traders is under scanner of the probe committee as it was involved in the procurement of eight armored personnel carriers (APCs) for the police in Sudan.
The one million USD was deposited on 27 July, 2008, in the bank account of Chinese national WU-Lixiang at Bhaisepati branch of Nepal Bangladesh Bank, said Pradip Gyawali, who heads the subcommittee, in a meeting of SAC on Wednesday while presenting his preliminary findings on the scam.
SAC formed the subcommittee after the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) made public a report in connection with the procurement deal. The UNAMID report states that the APCs, catering, communication systems, furniture and health facilities, among other things, do no meet standards.
Last month, an investigation team sent to Sudan under the aegis of the Home Ministry and Nepal Police came up with a shocking report according to which the 140 Nepali peacekeepers currently deployed in the region face serious security threat as they are operating without APCs.
The eight APCs sent to the Nepal mission in Darfur were nonfunctional. Interestingly, 55 million rupees has been spent in the name of spare parts for the APCs while the vehicles have remained nonfunctional ever since they were dispatched to the mission, according to the subcommittee. “We are yet to receive the three-page document on spare parts that is supposed to be signed on 12 June, 2008. We need to further investigate into it,” Gyawali said.
Subcommittee members to visit Darfur
The meeting of the full committee approved the subcommittee´s proposal on the need for a field visit to the Darfur region to inspect the APCs on the ground, among several other things related to the scam. A team of seven members will visit Sudan to find out the facts.
The meeting also extended the subcommittee´s deadline to submit its report. The term of the subcommittee was earlier extended by 45 days. As per the latest deadline, it will have to come up with its final findings within 15 days after the seven-member team returns home.
5 million rupees proposed for the trip
Home Minister Bhim Rawal, who was present in the meeting, said that the ministry has recommended five million rupees for Sudan trip. “We have sent the proposal to the council of ministers. Hope, the next cabinet meeting will approve it,” Rawal said.
Earlier, the ministry had recommended 8.2 million rupees for the trip. But the proposal was later amended as the finance ministry delayed in approving it. “Later, we removed some locations from the list of places to be visited. This time we have directly sent the proposal to the cabinet,” Rawal said.
The subcommittee had earlier summoned former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Om Bikram Rana, incumbent IGP Ramesh Chand Thakuri and other officials involved in the deal to record their statements.
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