The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed corruption cases against 12 officials of Agriculture Inputs Company (AIC) due to their involvement in the import of substandard fertilizers.
According to an investigation carried out by the CIAA, imported fertilizer did not meet the standard as per the given specifications. In lab tests conducted by the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, they found a large variance as a mismatch in moisture, nitrogen, and phosphorus contents were also found.
The fertilizer had 12.4 percent moisture against the set standard of 1.5 percent at maximum. Similarly, the availability of nitrogen content was 14.2 percent against the required ratio of 18 percent and phosphorus content was 45.1 percent while the required ratio was 46 percent.
The CIAA has filed cases against high-ranking officials including the AIC Managing Director Netra Bahadur Bhandari at the Special Court, Kathmandu.
They have been accused of alleged involvement in the import of low-quality DAP fertilizer from a contractor named ‘Nepal Environmental’.
Nepal Environmental had been operating without renewing its license when the AIC awarded the contract. In addition, the government enterprise did not obey any competitive bidding process in the process.
CIAA is planning to recover more than Rs. 1 billion from the accused.
