The
anti-graft body has today arrested some 10 Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)
employees, including director Arjun Bahadur Chauhan, deputy director Mahesh
Kumar Karki, former managing director Yugal Kishor Shah and engineers and
managers as they were involved in the process of recommending, inspecting,
approving and releasing payment while purchasing sub-standard transformers.
“All the
arrested have been sent to custody,” according to CIAA spokesperson Shreedhar
Sapkota.
Likewise,
suppliers – a Chinese and a Thai companies – are also under CIAA radar in the
multi-billion rupees sub-standard transformer purchase scam.
The Commission
for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is also investigating some of
the former and incumbent NEA officials.
Due to CIAA
action, the state power utility is going to face a manpower crunch as most of
the NEA officials are under the custody.
Earlier, the
CIAA had arrested 11 officials and three suppliers on August 4 and 10 NEA officials
on August 20. It has also filed two separate charge sheets against the accused at
the Special Court on August 23.
A three-member internal probe
committee formed earlier by NEA had revealed that around 1,275 transformers
purchased from Hubei Sunlight Electric of China were of sub-standard, as the
transformer had aluminum wires instead of copper wires.
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