The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has sought details of the development projects that are either running behind deadline or stalled for a long time. The move is aimed at helping the government to ensure that the long-stalled projects are implemented soon, the anti-graft body said.

CIAA Chief Commissioner Nabin Kumar Ghimire told the meeting of the State Affairs Committee (SAC) of Parliament on Wednesday that the ministries concerned have been asked to furnish the details of such projects.

“We have provided them the format on how to send their details. Once we receive the files on under-performing projects, we will investigate them individually,” he said.

The CIAA has shown its interest on the progress status of development projects at a time when influential contractors, including Pappu Construction and Shailung Construction, are under fire for sitting on a large number of projects that were supposed to be completed years ago. During Wednesday’s SAC meeting, lawmakers also questioned the CIAA chief for grilling the government officials with ‘ill intentions’, which they said led to a situation where the bureaucracy is unwilling to make major policy decisions.Lawmaker Janardan Sharma said the activities of the CIAA in the past planted fear among the government officials.

“New leadership has committed not to create such fear which is commendable,” he said.NC lawmaker Binod Chaudhary complained that officials do not take a timely decision as long as they don’t have any interest associated with the decision. “There is also the tendency of seeking intervention from the CIAA when rival contractor wins the government contract,” he said.CIAA officials assured that the government officials need not fear if they have followed due legal procedure.

“Our bureaucracy doesn’t want to take risk. When we ask them about the complaints received, their feet tremble,” said Ghimire. “It is our duty to ask about the complaint, instead of keeping the complaint without clearing.” Stating that the law has defined ‘not taking a decision’ as an ‘attempted corruption,’ Ghimire warned that the anti-graft body could drag such officials to court.Besides the indecision of the government officials, the tendency among the contractors to occupy as many contracts as possible has also affected the progress of several development projects.

In order to address this issue, the CIAA has asked the government offices to implement a system where contracts are not awarded to those firms that do not have the capacity to handle additional projects. “I have directed the director general of the Department of Roads to develop software where a roster of contractors, their capacity and human resources could be updated,” Ghimire said.

The Department of Roads has already developed the software and it has instructed its various offices in different parts of the country to update the details of contracts and contractors. Once the system comes into effect, the department officials believe the tendency of hogging projects could be controlled to a large extent.