The report, which was prepared based on the statements of senior officials including Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam, Urban Development Minister Narayan Khadka and internal reports of the ministry, states that relief materials were doled out haphazardly and they were substandard.

“It is not clear how many tents the Urban Development Ministry procured in the first lot. As many as 3,199 tents and tarpaulins were distributed without receipt and there is no record about 27,709 tents supposedly distributed to the displaced people,” states the report. It was found that most of the tents were distributed without receipt and the suppliers took the tents with them after formally handing them over to the authorities. The report states that public procurement procedure was flouted while awarding firms contract for purchasing relief materials. Other discrepancies were found while purchasing similar items.

“The price of tents and tarpaulins got costlier after the government waived tax on their purchase than they cost earlier,” says the report.

It was also not clear whether all the relief materials meant for quake survivors were distributed to the needy. As per the details provided by the home minister to the parliamentary committee, the ministry distributed 943,600 tents and tarpaulins.

Additionally, helicopters chartered for rescue and search operations were used for personal purposes. The Home Ministry has no information about the actual service hours of choppers and the purpose of their use.

The PAC, which has already decided not to ask the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority for further investigation and action against those involved in the irregularities, submitted the report to the National Disaster Management Monitoring and Directive Committee recommending action against those misusing state funds.

“We submitted our report to the Speaker-headed National Disaster Management Monitoring and Directive Committee,” said PAC member Dhan Raj Gurung.