 |
Kathmandu Wednesday May 23, 2001 Jestha 10, 2058.
|
PAC divided on CSWA case
Post Report
KATHMANDU, May 22 - The Parliamentary Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) failed even today to reach a decision on the controversial case of leasing
an aircraft belonging to China South West Airlines (CSWA) by the state-owned Royal Nepal
Airlines Corporation, due to conflicting opinions between its own members.
The committee, even after six hours of discussions today
could not reach any solution and decided to postpone the deliberation till Wednesday
morning.
In today’s meeting, members from the ruling Nepali
Congress strongly objected on mentioning of the leasing of the CSWA jet, the ninth
aircraft RNAC has leased, as both are "involved in irregularities and
intentional." Tarani Dutta Chataut was the then the Civil Aviation Minister from the
NC government.
However, all the members agreed on focussing more on the
fourth and ninth leasing of the CSWA jet, when it was leased for the longest period. Bhim
Bahadur Rawal of CPN-UML was the then Civil Aviation Minister in 1999 when the state
airliner had leased the CSWA jet for the fourth time.
"The irregularities in the fourth deal is more serious
as the RNAC leased a Boeing 757 aircraft though it had held a global tender for a 767 jet.
"There are also controversies regarding hefty commission involved in this particular
deal," said Bharat Bahadur Shah, a PAC member from NC.
"The ninth deal cannot be judged in similar manner to
the fourth one, as it was just a continuation of the former deals. It also cannot be
adjudged as leased with wrong intentions," he argued.
But PAC members of the CPN-UML are sticking to the opinion
that the committee concentrate equally on the irregularities seen in both the fourth and
ninth leasing as the NC government had gone overboard by sanctioning foreign currency
against the suggestions made by the Commission for Investigating Abuse of Authority
(CIAA).
CIAA had suggested the RNAC lease aircraft only after
calling a global tender prior to the ninth deal after most of the pervious aircraft lease
deals had ended up in controversies.
PAC members have also unanimously agreed now to recommend
action against the government officials who have failed to provide necessary documents
when the CSWA jet was leased for the first three times. They have also agreed that all of
the nine deals of the CSWA aircraft lease by RNAC have been involved in some form of
irregularities.
Today’s meeting had almost come to an end on the CSWA
case after it agreed to form a five-member all-party group to amend the "a few
wordings" on the report prepared by PAC Chairman Subash Nembang. Nembang, Hridesh
Tripati, Lila Mani Pokharel, Ramesh Lekhak and Birod Khatiwada were the five group
members.
However, differences arose again and members continued the
debate until 8:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, PAC members from the ruling Nepali Congress have
time and again accused the CPN-UML members of deliberately playing down the CSWA case,
wherever any CPN-UML stalwart are seen has been involved. Analysts say that NC members are
now speaking strongly against the CSWA deal to dilute the Lauda Air lease controversy over
which Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has been under much pressure from the
opposition parties.
Other Stories
|
