The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Legislature Parliament has summoned a meeting for Monday to hold discussions on the report submitted by the sub-committee formed to probe the procurement of two wide-body aircraft.

Following widespread criticisms that there had been massive financial irregularities during the procurement of two wide-body Airbus A330 jets, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had formed a sub-committee headed by Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Rajen KC to investigate the aircraft purchase deal.

The sub-committee submitted its report to the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday after studying the issue for 15 days.

At a meeting held in Singha Durbar on Friday to hold discussions on the report, Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmakers expressed their doubts over the report arguing that it was politically prejudiced.

Almost all the lawmakers of the committee expressed their dissatisfaction over the words written in the report. They demanded that all the accused should be dealt equally in the same scandal.

They expressed their dissatisfaction, saying that the report has recommended action against the minister on the basis of moral responsibility, while some others have been described as bad intention.

Coordinator of the sub-committee, KC urged the lawmakers to not doubt the report that was prepared painstakingly.

Sub-committee member Prem Ale said they didn’t pick the report from a dustbin instead it was prepared after investigation.

“We kept everything that we found during our investigation. There is no biasness,” he said.

The inquiry report of the committee has charged Civil Aviation Minister Rabindra Adhikari, Civil Aviation Secretary Krishna Prasad Devkota, Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office Sisir Prasad Dhungana, and Managing Director of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) Sugat Ratna Kansakar, among others, with misappropriating at least Rs 4.35 billion while procuring the two wide-body aircraft.

The parliamentary inquiry has held 34 incumbent and erstwhile government officials responsible in one of the largest corruption incidents in the country’s history. Among them are former aviation ministers Jeevan Bahadur Shahi and Jitendra Dev, who had served in the governments led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba respectively, and former aviation secretaries Shankar Prasad Adhikari, Prem Kumar Rai and Maheshwor Neupane.

Earlier on Thursday, the government had formed a high-level commission to probe the controversial procurement of two wide-body Airbus planes by the Nepal Airlines Corporation.

A Cabinet meeting had decided to form the three-member commission after a subcommittee of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee concluded that purchase of the two A330 jets by the NAC siphoned Rs4.35 billion from the state coffers.

The KP Sharma Oli-led administration was forced to form the commission after the subcommittee report implicated a sitting minister and top bureaucrats in the embezzlement surrounding the purchase of jets.