Kathmandu, Jan. 24 : There is growing sign of His Majesty’s Government’s resolve to control corruption and commision-mongering in development projects at a time when various segments of the society are emphasising the need to end corruption and the practice of commission seeking.
Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, in the course his inspection visit to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation recently, directed the official concerned to make transparent the amount of commission available on rnac aircraft purchase deal and deposit the amount thus received in the government fund.
This directive of the Prime Minister is regarded as an important step in the history of air service itself as well as an effective commitment of the Prime Minister to eradicating corruption and commission-mongering.
The board of directors of rnac recently decided to buy a wide-bodied boeing-767 and sought His Majesty’s Government’s approval for the same.
rnac which is operating air services to Europe, Japan, Singapore, India and other countries has only one boeing 656. The contract on acquisition of China South West’s boeing -656 on lease for one year expires on march 20, 2000.
rnac has been operating the aircraft acquired on lease since 1950. Before that, the national flag carrier had four aircraft including boeing 727 and boeing 757, of which two boeing-757 were sold. At present, rnac has only one boeing -757, one avro and eight twin otters in operation.
Asked whether rnac needs to buy aircraft, rnac former executive chairman Ajit Narayan Singh Thapa replied: “it is indeed very good for rnac to buy aircriaft, and a proposal for aircraft purchase was made during my tenure itself.”A boeing aircraft is said to cost about us $ 80 million at the present international price. The aircraft can be in service for twenty years, given good maintenance and repair.”
As regards the amount of commission likely to be offered in an aircraft purchase deal, thapa said commission might not be granted if purchse was made directly from the manufacturing company, “though amount of commision is a matter agreed upon between buyer and seller.”
rnac has to buy aircraft in order to be able to more competitive within the country and in the interantioan arena., says former minister for tourism and civil aviation Ananda Prasad Dhungana, Mp.
The Prime Minister had issued directives to make purchase deal relating to development and construction transparent and we, too, moved resolutions in the parliament calling for transparency in such deals, he recalled.
He is of the view that if His Majesty’s Government forms a committee on aircraft purchase to call open quotations from various companies and makes transparent the quotation of lowest bidding then commission can be turned into revenue.