The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Sunday interrogated one incumbent and two retired secretaries in relation to their decision to go for arbitration to settle the transfer scam even as corruption cases against officials of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) was under consideration of the Special Court.

The anti-graft body interrogated former chief secretary Rajendra Kishore Kshetry, former secretary Bishwo Prakash Pandit and secretary Arjun Karki. All three at one point of time had served as energy secretary.  

The Energy secretary in the capacity of the chairperson of the NEA presides over the board meetings of the state-owned power utility.

The CIAA had filed two corruption cases against 26 Nepal Electricity Authority officials and four suppliers in August 2013. 

The Special Court on March 28 this year convicted 20 NEA officials including ex-managing directors Rameshwor Yadav and Jivendra Jha of corruption. 

But the NEA board had decided to go for arbitration long before the Special Court passed its judgment on the two cases. 

According to a CIAA source, the anti-graft body believes the NEA board’s decision to go for arbitration for the recovery of the amount lost in the scam sought to influence the court verdict.  

The two former senior bureaucrats and one serving bureaucrat were interrogated as the decision to go for arbitration was aimed at influencing the judicial process, the source said. 

“They were called for interrogation only; they were not taken into custody.” 

The NEA which had lost millions of rupees in the transformer scam had to spend millions of rupees for arbitration, which achieved nothing. 

The transformers imported from Chinese companies Hu Bei Sunlight Electric 

Co, Shenyang Dongneng Electricity Equipment, SVR Electrical and Sichuan Dongfang Transformer were found to be substandard, while transformers imported from Thai company Sahabhant Electric were also of poor quality.

Ex-police chief Aryal under scanner

KATHMANDU: The Commi- ssion for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Sunday interrogated former inspector general of police Upendra Kanta Aryal and incumbent secretary Gajendra Thakur as part of its investigation into the complaints that they have amassed property through illegal means. 

The anti-graft body also interrogated two Deputy Superintendents of Police under Kathmandu Metropolitan City—Rajunath Pandey and Dhanpati Sapkota.

A CIAA source told the Post that interrogation is a part of its ongoing investigation into around 200 government employees.

“We are going to interrogate them one by one in the coming days,” said the source. According to CIAA sources, at least four serving secretaries are also being investigated.

About 20 percent of those under investigation are engineers and they are associated with various development related ministries. Some police officers, government employees from revenue stream and government staffers from the local governments are also under the CIAA scanner.