INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KATHMANDU, JUNE 17
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has continued its mission to carry out preventive measures
against corruption regardless of the adverse situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The anti-graft body arrested five employees of
Dillibazar-based Land Reform and Land Revenue Office with bribe of Rs 850,000, they received from a service-seeker, yesterday
Those taken into custody are non-gazetted first class officers Uddhav Sapkota, Narayan Prasad Pokharel, Nawaraj Ghimire and Gopal Khadka,
and non-gazetted second class officer Deepak Khanal.
Acting on a complaint that they were soliciting bribe, a special team deployed from the
CIAA arrested them with the cash from Samakhusi.
Joint Secretary Pradip Kumar Koirala, CIAA spokesperson, said they demanded the bribe money
and received Rs 850,000 as kickback for facilitating them with plotting of land
He said the anti-graft body had launched further investigation into the bribery.
According to statistics of the CIAA, it conducted eight
sting operations leading to arrest of 15 public post holders since March 24 when the government imposed nationwide lockdown to contain the
They were caught either in the act of receiving the bribe or after pocketing it
Despite repeated warnings by the CIAA against the public post holders about its intensified sting operations, bribery continues unabated at
government offices.
The CIAA said it had been mobilising its employees at corruption-prone public offices, in guise of service-seekers for
integrity test of government officials
&Micro-surveillance and rapid action procedures were implemented to swing into action against government employees involved in
irregularities and corruption.
It is expected to improve the public service delivery system by controlling corrupt tendency of officials,&
said Spokesperson Koirala
A survey conducted by the CIAA on ‘Status of Corruption and Good Governance in Nepal-2019& has categorically identified fourteen public
offices, which are most corruption-sensitive and where services are denied without bribe
Some of the top government offices prone to corruption include land revenue office, survey office, inland revenue office, municipality/rural
municipality office, water supply office, and district administration office, among others.
A version of this article appears in e-paper on
June 18, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.
The post Nepalanti-graft body continues its sting operation appeared first on The Himalayan Times.
