A secretary’s revelation that he was transferred after he objected to the Election Commission (EC)’s decision to buy high-end vehicles “skirting the tender process” has left commissioners scrambling to defend the move.

After Gopinath Mainali was transferred to the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday, he made some damning allegations against the EC commissioners, saying he was forced out of the EC Secretariat because he stood against the plan to buy vehicles without tender process.

EC commissioners, however, have said Mainali’s transfer “has nothing to do with the plan to buy vehicles, as they are being procured as per the existing laws”.

According to EC sources, the poll body was planning to procure five high-end SUVs for the commissioners, stating that existing vehicles used by them are “very old” and that a huge amount of money was being spent on their maintenance.

“We need new vehicles as we have to travel to different parts of the country during the elections,” said a commissioner. According to the EC, there are a total of 72 vehicles including 42 four-wheelers for the officials.

Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav has been using three vehicles, including a Toyota Land Cruiser. Election Commissioner Ila Sharma is using two vehicles. One of them is a Toyota Land Cruiser.  Other commissioners have one Toyota Land Cruiser each at their disposal.

“The EC has also provided two vehicles to the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority and one to the Prime Minister’s Office,” said Mainali.

EC commissioners argued that the plan to buy new vehicles had been on the table for long. “We also received around Rs130 million for the purpose through the budget for this fiscal year,” said the commissioner. However, an official at the budget division of the Ministry of Finance told the Post that there is no specific mention of fund for buying vehicles.