action against all office-bearers Kathmandu medical equipment procurement deal medical procurement scam News Prime Minister KP Sharma Transparency International Nepal

TI Nepal seeks action against officials in medical procurement scam

Acharya123himal April 13, 2020

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Kathmandu, April 12

Transparency International Nepal has referred to as on Prime Minister KP Sharma to provoke stern motion in opposition to all office-bearers, together with political leaders, concerned within the alleged corruption beneath the pretext of medical tools procurement deal.

Issuing a press assertion, Nepal Chapter of the anti-corruption world community additionally urged the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority to open a free and truthful investigation into the corruption rip-off. “The crime of corruption premeditated by high-level authorities officers within the face of the opposed situation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put Nepal in disaster, is past creativeness. This rip-off makes a laughingstock of the prime minister’s dedication in opposition to corruption,” learn the discharge.

“Collusion between contract awarding authorities and intermediaries to serve their mutual curiosity beneath the cloak of government-to-government procurement deal repeatedly has introduced an enormous loss to the state treasury. Despite the slew of media reviews in regards to the latest procurement rip-off, the federal government is attempting to brush this difficulty off as an alternative of initiating motion in opposition to office-bearers and political leaders,” warned the discharge.

TI Nepal additionally condemned makes an attempt to defend the accountable authorities, and urged the federal government to uphold the rule of regulation.

The authorities had scrapped the contract with Omni Group, the medical tools provider, for failing to acquire protecting gears from China and delivering them to the Department of Health Service throughout the stipulated date.

The DOHS, which was vehemently criticised for awarding the Rs 340-million contract to Omni Group to provide medical tools from China at an exorbitant fee, scrapped the deal on April 1 amid criticism over the authenticity of the procurement course of and the usual of COVID-19 testing kits.

Earlier, the federal government had bypassed the bottom bidder and awarded the contract to Omni Group. This had raised many eyebrows and made your complete procurement course of suspicious. Moreover, it was revealed that COVID-19 testing kits value virtually Rs 70 million that the federal government bought from China didn’t meet World Health Organisation requirements. Many nations have banned the usage of such kits.

Initially, the federal government defended the procurement stating that the excessive value was because of scarcity of such tools within the world market. Corruption Perception Index-2019 unveiled by Transparency International had ranked Nepal 113 out of 180 nations with a rating of 34 and prompt that the federal government forestall alternatives for political corruption and foster the integrity of political methods.