The government had formed a high-level commission on January 3 to probe the controversial procurement of two wide-body Airbus planes by the Nepal Airlines Corporation, claiming that the probe report of the parliamentary subcommittee was not the “ultimate truth”.

Government spokesperson Gokul Prasad Banskota had told journalists that the three-member probe panel led by former Chief Judge Govinda Prasad Parajuli would submit its report within 45 days.

But after almost four months, the Parajuli-led panel is nowhere in sight. The commission is neither in existence nor has it been dissolved. Banskota told the Post that he was not aware of what the panel was doing.

“Maybe the panel is not functioning because the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority took up the case,” he said. Asked if the panel was dissolved and if the CIAA had taken up the investigation, Banskota, a close aide to the prime minister, however, said Tourism Ministry officials might know more about it. “I, too, am like you, in dark,” he said.

Banskota, the minister for information and communication technology, suggested enquiry with Tourism Secretary Mohan Krishna Sapkota. Sapkota, too, was unaware of the developments. “You should talk to ministers as the decision was made by the Cabinet,” Sapkota said, hinting at Banskota again.

Even Kundan Aryal, press advisor to the prime minister, said he was not aware of the status of the Parajuli panel.

Enquired about it after the 45-day tenure of the panel expired, prime minister’s chief advisor Bishnu Rimal had told the Post that the oath-taking ceremony was delayed after one of its members, Narendra Prasad Pathak refused to work saying that he was involved in another investigation. “Once a new member is appointed, the panel will become functional,” Rimal had said.

This incident shows how the decisions of the Oli cabinet are implemented.

Chairman of the probe panel, Parajuli said he had heard about his appointment as decided by the Cabinet only through media but he received neither the appointment letter nor the information of its dissolution.

The KP Sharma Oli administration had formed the commission after a report of a subcommittee formed by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) implicated a sitting minister and top bureaucrats in the embezzlement surrounding the purchase of jets.

The subcommittee headed by Nepali Congress lawmaker Rajan KC had submitted a 58-page report to the PAC, indicting officials who were in charge of the Tourism Ministry when the procurement process began.

The report, prepared after a 20-day investigation, charged Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari, who died in a helicopter crash on February 27, and former ministers Jivan Bahadur Shahi and Jitendra Dev with failing to stop the deal.

The report had categorically named NAC Managing Director Sugat Ratna Kansakar as the kingpin of the corruption and had recommended immediate suspension of Kansakar alongside sitting Secretaries Prem Kumar Rai and Krishna Prasad Devkota, and former secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari, who had acted as the NAC chair in the capacity of the tourism secretary.

On January 10, government spokesperson Banskota had said there would be no action against the officials indicted by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee until the government-formed inquiry commission presents its report.

Answering the queries of journalists, Banskota had said the government would take necessary action against those involved in the scam only after the inquiry commission prepares its report.

“We’ll take into account the PAC report but since the government has already formed a probe commission. The case will be finalised only after the report comes,” Banskota had said, adding that there was no uniformity in the decisions of the subcommittee and its full committee.

Banskota had also claimed that the high-level inquiry commission was formed after the leader of the opposition party and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba demanded a panel to look into the multi-million dollar wide-body purchase scam.

A day after the PAC subcommittee’s report was revealed by the media on January 2, the government had formed a three-member commission headed by former chief judge Parajuli with former deputy attorney general Nanda Prasad Pathak and chartered accountant Madan Sharma as members. Pathak had later refused to be in the panel citing his involvement in another investigation team of the National Human Rights Commission.

The parliamentary committee had directed the government to implement its recommendations and present the progress report within a month. However, the government had given the inquiry commission 45 days to submit its report.