Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has changed the investigation committee established for investigating on the newly bought wide-body aircraft of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC). The new coordinator is Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane who was also NAC operational committee member during aircraft procurement period.
The previous coordinator Suresh Acharya, joint secretary of MoCTCA was also in the NAC operational committee for past 1 year. There was a dispute when Mr. Acharya was at investigation committee because of being a NAC operational committee member. And again the question has been raised as the changed coordinator was also involved in the A330 purchase process.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) created the investigation committee after the news about using the agents to purchase the 2 new wide-body aircraft by NAC created controversy. The auditor general has also raised a question on the controversy.
The 15 days investigation report will answer all the questions raised about wide-body procurement stated Lamichhane adding that the purchase process is fair as per now. The committee was formed to study about the purchase procurement as per the order from Ministry.
The committee was formed with Lamichhane along with corporation’s 1 operational committee member, a CAAN official with the addition of other experts as per required. A Ministry official questioned about having airlines operational member as investigation officer.
