Parliament begins business without Oppn

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KATHMANDU, March 21 – Things at last got moving in the House of Representatives today. And there could be more in the immediate future, at least judging by the pregnant statement of Speaker Taranath Ranabhat.

First, Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel was allowed to speak from the Well of the House. Second, the proceedings continued even after the opposition walked out. And most important, the Speaker indicated that he would run the proceedings from now on to facilitate the government to pass two important ordinances.

"I want to remind the lawmakers that if it is my duty to acknowledge the opposition’s symbolic protest and respect their sentiments, it is also my responsibility to find a way out of the indefinite disruption (of the House) as per the rules and regulations," remarked the Speaker. One such regulation, as some of the advocates have pointed out, is to use marshals to remove the agitating opposition members. But Ranabhat has already ruled that out.

The Speaker said that the time for introspection has come to ponder how long the House should be allowed to remain disrupted and "what message we are sending to the public".

In addition to his prepared speech that indicated regular House proceedings in the near future, the Speaker did not immediately adjourn the House even after the all the opposition parties boycotted the House for the day. Instead, Ranabhat gave time to the Nepali Congress (NC) chief whip Binay Dhoj Chand to speak.

In his statement, the NC chief whip asked the Speaker to ensure regular proceedings of the House. Chand added that the ruling party and the government were willing to hold talks with the opposition to find a way out of the current impasse.

Earlier, Pashupati Rana of Rastriya Prajatantra Party, denounced the government’s move to "bypass and ignore the parliament in trying to get the Armed Police Force (APF) ordinance endorsed through back door". He also charged the government of politicizing the new force, which, he added, was aimed against the opposition parties.

Rana expressed his concern over the reports that the House would pass the ordinances – one on the APF and the other on Local Administration under which the five regional administrators were appointed – even without the presence of the opposition. The RPP leader asked the Speaker if he was under pressure to "adopt unparliamentary means".

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ram Chandra Poudel objected to Rana’s charge that the new force was aimed at the suppression of the opposition. He added that the sensitive time and the circumstances that the country was passing through compelled the government to recommend the promulgation of the ordinances. The DPM added that the ordinance on local administration was necessitated to coordinate between different districts which was lacking at present.

Badri Prasad Mandal of Nepal Sadbhawana Party too opposed the ordinances which, according to him, was aimed at "increasing police atrocity against the people".

The two ordinances must be passed within 60 days of beginning of a parliament session if it is to retain force of law.

MMHP being pressurised to churn out additional Rs 400M

By Shree Ram Subedi

KATHMANDU, March 21 - Government officials in charge of the 70-megawatt Mid-Marsyangdi Hydel Project (MMHP) are under intense pressure to increase the price of the project’s civil works contract by as much as Rs 400 million, highly placed government sources have revealed to The Kathmandu Post.

The civil works contract for the project was handed over to a consortium of three foreign companies some months ago at a quoted price of Rs 6.20 billion. But the companies - Dywidag of Germany, Dragados of Spain and Chinese Company China Water Electric (CWE)- are negotiating with the MMHP to increase the cost of the project.

A highly placed official in the Ministry for Water Resources said that intense pressure is being brought to jack up the price of the project by as much as Rs 400 million. Such increases would not only put more burden on the government and tax-payers, but also would be in contravention of MMHP board guidelines and standard financial practice.

The contractors appear to be emboldened in their strategy because the second best bidder’s price was quoted at Rs 7.38 billion, providing the winners wide leeway to jack up the contract. The NEA’s own estimates of the construction cost were also over Rs 7.50 billion.

"The contractors might have quoted such a low cost in the tender to outplay its competitors and bargain for cost escalation later on," the government official said.

The tough bargain has already delayed the commencement of the construction works by two months and is leading to fears of over running the cost. A six-month delay would inflict additional cost of Rs 124 million, experts say.

The negotiation tactic to increase contract price is a classic one and has been used here earlier successfully by the contractors of the 144 megawatt Kaligandaki-A hydel project.

A senior official in the Ministry for Water Resources, requesting anonymity, also claimed that some government officials are also lobbying to increase the cost of the Middle Marsyangdi project in favour of the contractors. Since the project is being constructed under German grant and a German Company is the lead contractor, the official even suspects of the pressure from the diplomatic quarter to increase the cost.

The source argues that the demand for cost revision contradicts MMHP Board guidelines, which strictly rules out any room for negotiations to increase the cost after awarding the contract.

Dhruba Raj Bhattarai, Director at MMHP, also admitted that the contractors have demanded revision in the cost and negotiations to this effect are ongoing. "We are trying our bests to avoid the revision...but we are not the only ones who take the final decisions," Bhattarai said.

When pointed out that the demand was against the Board’s earlier guidelines, Bhattarai argued that in such a project where there is involvement of foreign parties it is not only the Nepali rules and guidelines that will be abiding.

However, Benup Raj Prasai, Minister of State for Water Resources told The Kathmandu Post that the ministry is aware of the bargain by the contractors and said, "I have asked the negotiating team to be alert on the issue and to comply with the financial rules and regulations of the country."

The project is being funded jointly under the grant assistance from a German Development Bank, KFW, Nepal Electricity Authority and the government.

JVT to begin work Monday

By Lila Baral

BHADRAPUR, Jhapa, March 21 - The Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team (JVT) decided on Tuesday that it would begin the verification process to weed out real refugees from the rest on Monday, March 26.

"The team will begin their work at Khudunabari refugee camp checking about 10 families every day," said Usha Nepal, leader of the Nepali said here today.

The Khudunabari-based camp, which is home to 1,963 families, is located about 27 km north of Bhadrapur, the district headquarters.

The Bhutanese team led by Dr. Sonam Tenzin arrived here on March 11 to commence the verification process.

The two sides agreed to start the refugee verification process following the several rounds of meetings with each other.

Although the JVT office is located at Damak, close to Beldangi camp which houses majority of the refugees with the estimated population of 45,000, the JVT chose to start its first verification from Khudunabari camp that has a smaller number.

Asked why the JVT chose the Khudunabari-based camp for its first verification, Nepali team leader Nepal said this medium-sized refugee camp was made a basis for verification keeping aside the largest and the smallest refugee camps.

Earlier, the Nepali side had proposed the Bhutanese counterpart to begin work from the Beldangi-based camp. But the Bhutanese side declined the Nepali proposal and insisted that the work should begin from the least populated Goldhap refugee camp.

A source close to the JVT told The Kathmandu Post that both the sides agreed on medium-sized Khudunabari camp following the several rounds of heated discussions and as a compromise.

The 10-member JVT, with five members from each side, was constituted early January following the 10th meeting of the Joint Ministerial Level Committee (MLC) held in Kathmandu on December 27, 2000.

As set basis to begin the work, the JVT has already agreed that the official documents such as the Bhutanese citizenship certificates, land ownership certificates, papers related to the government services and scholarship to the students, birth and marriage registration certificates, passports, trade license, receipts papers of the voluntary work, papers of school registration and family head would be made the base for the verification.

According to the official statistics, by the end of November 2000, there were a total of 7,553 families in Beldangi-based three refugee camps, 1,377 families in Timai, 1,349 families in Goldhap and 2,714 families in Sanischare refugee camps in the neighbouring Morang district.

If the verification continues at this pace, it will take more than three years for the JVT to accomplish the verification of over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees from a total of 15,032 families languishing in various camps in eastern Nepal over a decade.

Bail fixed for accused in LC case

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KATHMANDU, March 21 - The Lalitpur Appellate Court today ordered the main accused of the letter of credit (LC) default Ananda Kumar Agrawal and the other accused Bhakti Karki, Ram Kumar Bista and Narayan Dhungana to post a combined bail of Rs 257 million. The court has demanded the bail amount of Rs 50 million from Ananda Kumar Agrawal, the main accused of the LC scam.

Responding to a case filed by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the order was passed by a division bench comprising justices Min Bahadur Rayamahji and Ram Prasad Khanal.

The court has also directed that the total bail amount be sought from Shrikrishna Shrestha, the then General Manager and Mahendra Bhakta Pradhananga, Chief Executive of the Rastriya Banijya Bank, Baneshowr Branch, if the amount cannot be posted by the accused. According to the CIAA, all the accused however remain at large.

The CIAA has also filed case against Ram Kumar Bista proprietor of Deaurali Spinning Mills, Narayan Dhungana of Narayani Spinning Mills, Bhakti Karki Chhetri of Arun Spinning Mills and guarantor Ananda Agrawal for being accomplices of Shrestha and Pradhananga to the default of US$ 1,302,000.

The accused had opened LC A/c to import raw materials from New Zealand. The Commission has accused the Bank of releasing the amount by accepting unrelated document and without delivery of goods.

Six LCs were opened in the names of the firms to import goods from New Zealand by accepting unwarranted and unconcerned documents. The Commission has accused them of defaulting US$ 1,302,000 being guarantor unreasonably in the capacity of the proprietor as it was unhealthy and unusual to make the payment in advance prior to the delivery of goods.

The Commission has stated that the court took the decision by fixing the claimed of US$ 348,320, which remains to be realised from them till date.

The court has fixed the fine on the ground of illegally retaining and using foreign currency for an unnecessarily long time. The Commission had filed the case in accordance to the Corruption Eradication Act, 2017.

The report relating to LC default episode states that Rs 3 billion was defaulted in the case made public some five years ago. According to the Report Agrawal is the main accused of the LC scam.

US firm offers to employ ex-Himalayan Infotech workers

By Bhaskar Sharma

KATHMANDU, March 21 - The US company which allegedly pulled the plug on Himalayan Infotech Services (HIS) Pvt. Ltd. early this month has promised to provide jobs to all the qualified laid off workers at its branch in New Delhi, India.

This was disclosed to The Kathmandu Post by the New Delhi branch of Heartland Information Services, USA, which was providing Himalayan Infotech medical transcription contract, a booming sector of the global IT economy.

"Heartland Information Services of New Delhi, India, is offering employment to all qualified medical transcriptionists of Himalayan Infotech Services Pvt. Ltd. in Kathmandu," the company said in a statement to The Kathmandu Post here on Wednesday. Himalayan Infotech employed over 400 people, mostly young.

"Since the opening of the Nepal medical transcription facility, the employees of Himalayan Infotech have been performing quality transcription," said Dr Steven Mandell, president of Heartland Information Services. "In an attempt to minimize the impact of the closure of Himalayan Infotech on the more than 300 trained medical transcriptionists in the Nepal office, Heartland Information Services of New Delhi has committed to provide job opportunities to them at the New Delhi facility."

Those former employees of Himalayan Infotech interested in a position with Heartland Information Services of New Delhi will be provided with travel and a sign-on bonus if they chose to apply for employment with the India centre, he said.

Established nearly three years ago, Himalayan Infotech had entered into a contract with Heartland Information Services for providing medical transcription services. However, hardly four months after its commercial operations, the company was forced to close down on March 1 due to the lack of funds.

While board members of Himalayan Infotech have blamed Heartland Information Services for the company’s present state of affairs, the latter claims the cessation of operations was due to a failure on the part of Himalayan Infotech to obtain the necessary equity funds and working capital to continue its operation.

"Heartland Information Services has been aggressively working with Himalayan Infotech and its private investors since the beginning of this year to assist them in securing greater investment in their company," explained Dr Mandell.

When Himalayan Infotech was unable to meet its contractual responsibilities with Heartland, the partners of Himalayan Infotech themselves took the decision in February to close the Nepal facility, terminating the service agreement that it reached with Heartland Information Services.

However, Judda Gurung, Chief Executive Officer of Himalayan Infotech, said that Heartland Information Services caused its downfall. "The abrupt withdrawal by Heartland Information Services from going into a joint venture with Himalayan Infotech has forced its closure," he added.

According to Gurung, when Himalayan Infotech, a few months after its agreement with the American company, sought local partners to inject additional funds, the American company assured to invest in the funds-depleted company. However, Heartland Information Services abruptly withdrew from investing into HIS last February-end without any explanation, Gurung claimed.

With average qualifications of ten-plus-two, employees at the Himalayan Infotech were earning around Rs 9,000 per month, which is attractive by local standards. And the total turnover for the company, had it survived one more year, would have shot over Rs 100 million, a respectable amount for a Nepali firm.

Meanwhile, unpaid employees and management of Himalayan Infotech are engaged in a row. Employees are yet to receive their salary for February and their accumulated allowance of Rs 9,000, payable for the training that they undertook. While reconciliatory talks between the management and the employees have failed to make much headway, it was agreed that the salary would be cleared by March 26.

Bail fixed for accused in LC case

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KATHMANDU, March 21 - The Lalitpur Appellate Court today ordered the main accused of the letter of credit (LC) default Ananda Kumar Agrawal and the other accused Bhakti Karki, Ram Kumar Bista and Narayan Dhungana to post a combined bail of Rs 257 million. The court has demanded the bail amount of Rs 50 million from Ananda Kumar Agrawal, the main accused of the LC scam.

Responding to a case filed by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the order was passed by a division bench comprising justices Min Bahadur Rayamahji and Ram Prasad Khanal.

The court has also directed that the total bail amount be sought from Shrikrishna Shrestha, the then General Manager and Mahendra Bhakta Pradhananga, Chief Executive of the Rastriya Banijya Bank, Baneshowr Branch, if the amount cannot be posted by the accused. According to the CIAA, all the accused however remain at large.

The CIAA has also filed case against Ram Kumar Bista proprietor of Deaurali Spinning Mills, Narayan Dhungana of Narayani Spinning Mills, Bhakti Karki Chhetri of Arun Spinning Mills and guarantor Ananda Agrawal for being accomplices of Shrestha and Pradhananga to the default of US$ 1,302,000.

The accused had opened LC A/c to import raw materials from New Zealand. The Commission has accused the Bank of releasing the amount by accepting unrelated document and without delivery of goods.

Six LCs were opened in the names of the firms to import goods from New Zealand by accepting unwarranted and unconcerned documents. The Commission has accused them of defaulting US$ 1,302,000 being guarantor unreasonably in the capacity of the proprietor as it was unhealthy and unusual to make the payment in advance prior to the delivery of goods.

The Commission has stated that the court took the decision by fixing the claimed of US$ 348,320, which remains to be realised from them till date.

The court has fixed the fine on the ground of illegally retaining and using foreign currency for an unnecessarily long time. The Commission had filed the case in accordance to the Corruption Eradication Act, 2017.

The report relating to LC default episode states that Rs 3 billion was defaulted in the case made public some five years ago. According to the Report Agrawal is the main accused of the LC scam.

Different approaches in jet deals probe alleged

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KATHMANDU, March 21 – The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members today pointed out the difference in the approach of the two sub-committees that investigated alleged irregularities in the Lauda Air and the CSWA jet lease deals.

Hridyesh Tripathi said that sub-committee, probing the China South West Airlines (CSWA) Boeing-757 jet deal, should have adopted the same specific approach as the one that had probed the Lauda deal. He also objected to the exclusion of the censoring of the Cabinet decision that had approved the necessary foreign exchange for the CSWA jet deal.

The current main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) was in power, although in minority, when the CSWA lease deal was struck by RNAC. UML leader Bhim Rawal, the then Civil Aviation Minister had pushed the deal through. The Cabinet had cleared the foreign exchange then too, as the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala did late last year for the Lauda Air deal.

Now, the UML-led six opposition parties are demanding Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s resignation precisely for the Cabinet decision that had cleared the foreign exchange for the Lauda deal.

Tripathi also demanded to know on what basis B K Man Singh, the then executive chairman of Royal Nepal Airline Corporation (RNAC), claimed that CSWA deal was cheaper than an earlier lease deal of RNAC with a Turkmenistan airline.

Birendra Kanodia said that the CSWA deal, leased and re-leased nine times, was "ten times more corrupt than the Lauda deal".

Some members also pointed out the "dubious attempt" of RNAC management, during March-April 1999, to denounce a letter from CSWA that was published in a weekly newspaper from Kathmandu. In a letter, allegedly written by Zhou Goang Quan, manager, planning and development department to RNAC chairman, on March 2, 1999, Quan suggested the RNAC management to pocket the sum beyond the agreed amount between the two. "Any price on which you would like to sign the contract above US $ 2800, will be your personal commission", reads a portion of the letter.

RNAC not only termed the letter as a forged one, but also wrote to the CSWA to clarify their position and "denounce this matter".

There was an immediate response from Quan terming the letter "fake". However, the letter pad is different this time and even the spelling of the middle name – Goang – is different, giving rise to suspicion as to which of Quan’s letter was the authentic one.

PAC would decide the course of action on the report on Friday.

Maoists call for bandh

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KATHMANDU, March 21 - The Nepal Communist Party (Maoists) has called a nation-wide general strike on April 6 as part of series of protests against the present government led by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

A statement singed by Prachanda, newly appointed Chairman of the Central Committee of the Party, has appealed for nation-wide bandh of transportation, educational institutions, factories and markets.

The statement has also alleged the government of ignoring Maoists' recent proposal for formation of a national government by including all the major political forces of the country.

Fresh programs for nationalities

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KATHMANDU, March 21 - The ninth-meeting of the Nationalities Development Committee under the chairmanship of Local Development Minister, Govinda Raj Joshi approved the 10 different programmes that will be conducted by the Committee during the fiscal year 2058/2059.

An estimated budget for the programs to be conducted by the Committee is Rs 30 million a year.

Among the 10 programmes are the protection and development of mother tongue, culture and research.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Joshi said that the programmes should have concrete outcome. "This committee should meet set target within limited period unlike other organisations, which are yet to meet their target, even after 20 years of inception of their program," said Joshi.

However, he also said that the programmes set by the committee will not be beneficial to all the ethnic groups, so the Committee should show the way to encompass all nationalities.

Dr Chaitanya Subba managing director and member of the Nationalities Development Committee presented the programmes that are to be carried out during the fiscal year 2058/2059 and progress report of the current fiscal year.