Kathmandu: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Sunday filed a corruption case against Chief Secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal, and 11 others, at the Special Court accusing him of irregularities in the budget allocation and procurement of duty stickers for the Security Printing Center.
This is the first time a sitting Chief Secretary in Nepal faces a corruption lawsuit. Aryal was appointed Chief Secretary by the government on June 15, 2023.
During his tenure as Secretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Aryal is accused of allocating a significant budget to the Security Printing Center without following due process.
Following the case filed against him, Dr Aryal has been automatically suspended from his position. As per the Corruption Prevention Act-2002, any public official charged with corruption is automatically suspended from the post following their prosecution by the anti-graft body.
Along with Aryal, the anti graft body has filed corruption charge against Ritesh Kumar Shakya, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Finance; Tanka Prasad Pandey, Deputy Director General of the Department Of Revenue Investigation; Bikal Paudel, former Executive Director of the Security Printing Center; Ganesh Bikram Shahi, former Director of the Inland Revenue Department; Safal Shrestha, former Director of the National Information Technology Center; Rabindra Prasad Paudel; Bishnu Prasad Gautam, Chief Accountant; Hariballav Paudel, Branch Officer of the Center; Shaktiprasad Shrestha, Procurement Consultant; Keshav Sharma, Directors of Prince Sales Company.
The anti graft body says they are involved in irregularities of over Rs 380 million.
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