Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the sub-committee of the Parliament is not the ultimate authority to investigate the procurement of two wide-body Airbus A330 jets.

He expressed his dissatisfaction over activities of the sub-committee such as leaking the report outside before submitting it to the committee.

Speaking at the 23rd episode of the programme ‘Janata Sanga Pradhanmantri’ on Wednesday, PM Oli said that he had urged the full committee of the Parliament and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to look into the issue.

“The sub-committee is not the supreme authority. The work of sub-committee is to submit report to the committee,” he said.

The sub-committee under the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday had concluded that the procurement of two wide-body Airbus A330 jets by Nepal Airlines Corporation has caused a loss of Rs4.35 billion to the government.

“The process to procure the wide-body aircraft was not initiated during my tenure. I want to remind this thing to everyone,” he said, adding, “Those involved in irregularities will be punished. The government is serious about that.”

“I have said that a high-level investigation will be conducted regarding the issue. I have been thinking about it,” Prime Minister said. “We have already discussed a couple of times about the issue during the Cabinet meeting. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority may also look into the matter,” he added.

The Prime Minister said that he had heard that the Parliamentary sub-committee had submitted the report to the House panel.

He said the sub-committee “prepared on Tuesday and submitted the report on Wednesday”.

“I am not sure whether the details of the report were true or not. I have not seen the submitted report. I have not met any member of the sub-committee and discussed the issue,” he said, adding, “I am, however, stunned and unhappy that the committee formed a sub-committee to submit the report.”

PM Oli expressed his doubts whether the sub-committee submitted the report to the committee first or anybody else.

Read: Airbus A330 purchase scandal: Oli government faces moral quandary

“How the property of the committee was leaked outside? It’s ok if the truth was leaked but everything has its process,” the Prime Minister said. “The report was not prepared to hide. There must be some process to make the report public. The sub-committee is not everything regarding the issue. The duty of sub-committee is to submit the report to the committee,” he added.

He said that serious investigation will be carried out pertaining to the procurement of wide-body aircraft and the guilty will be punished.

The sub-committee led by Nepali Congress lawmaker Rajan KC submitted a 58-page investigation report to PAC on Wednesday, implicating top ranking officials at the Tourism Ministry during the procurement process.

 The report, prepared after a 20-day investigation, has charged Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari and former ministers—Jivan Bahadur Shahi and Jitendra Dev—with shying away from their responsibilities to stop the deal.

The report has categorically termed NAC Managing Director Sugat Ratna Kansakar as the kingpin of the scandal and recommended for his immediate suspension along with two sitting secretaries, Prem Kumar Rai and Krishna Prasad Devkota, and former secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari.