CIAA Moves
THE Commission for Investigation of the Abuse of Authority has started a probe on two
faulty deals the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation struck two and a half years ago with its
Europe-based sales agents incurring a loss to the tune of 15 million rupees. That was one
more occasion when the ailing national flag carrier was in for a setback. In one deal 140
tickets were provided as an incentive to the Teres D'Adventure of Paris and 132 tickets to
Bright Sun Travels of London to boost the number of passengers in the Kathmandu-Europe
route. A team of RNAC staff flew into Europe and studied how the Kathmandu-Paris-Kathmandu
and Kathmandu-Paris-Kathmandu sectors could be strengthened. The recommendations of the
team were taken by the then management as "wrong". Nevertheless, the then
management took the decision that led to the huge loss for the national flag carrier. That
same amount could have paid for the company employees in a more certain way for a month or
two or it could have paid for the repair of some of the planes in the domestic sector.
The details of who were involved in what stages of the deals
as individuals or organisations will be clear as the CIAA investigation proceeds. But what
is reassuring now is CIAA, going by the determination with which it has pursued corruption
cases before, will not budge until it brings the defaulters to the book. At this stage of
investigation, it is but natural that the people involved in the faulty deals, wittingly
or unwittingly, will try to prove their innocence. Everyone is entitled to get that
chance. This, however, does not mean that these people, whether in the management or at
other strategic levels, during the time when "wrong" recommendations were made
or "wrong" decisions were taken on that basis, can continue to shift blame to
others. As the CIAA probe proceeds, it is only fitting that the company employees feel
their stakes in helping it find out the truth and bring the culprits, who must have
amassed a large sum of money from the distribution of free tickets that miserably failed
to rope in more passengers, and the general public lends its moral support to the
anti-corruption body of the country.
Other Story
|
