540 corruption cases filed in three years: CIAA

Kathmandu Jan 28-The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), has said that it had registered 540 corruption cases and claimed about 3.5 billion rupees as reimbursement in the last three years after the second amendment to the CIAA Act, which further empowered the anti-corruption body.

Of the total 339 had been finalised while 201 were under consideration.

"The charges against public office holders include amassing property through illegal means, fiscal crime, fake certificates, and other corrupt activities like abuse of passports, vehicle registration and bribery," reports quoted Laxman Kumar Pokharel spokesperson of CIAA as saying.

Those charge-sheeted include, among others, ministers, secretaries, police inspector generals and other high ranking government officials, he said.

"Of 60 government officials accused of amassing property through illegal means, five were ministers, two special class secretaries, three IGPs, 17 first class joint secretaries, ten assistant secretaries, four junior officials and 19 assistant clerks," he added

Pokhrel said that the number defendants on charges of fiscal crime was 111, including a general manager and his deputy of Agriculture Development Bank and a deputy general manager of Nepal Bank Limited.

Likewise, 233 persons, including two first class, nine second class and 59 third class officials, were charged with using fake certificates to enter public services.

Talking about the working strategies of the anti-graft body, Pokharel said that they would set up a probing unit in order to make training and monitoring more effective, improvise investigation technologies, set up intelligence unit, install computer networking and establish coordination among anti-corruption bodies.

He said that the Commission would take action against the alleged as soon as it received complaints through any means. Stating that there was always room for improvement, he said that the Commission would be better equipped once it would shift to its new building, which is being constructed in Tangal at 150 million rupees