The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Thursday filed a corruption case against 19 individuals, including two former chairmen of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA), and two firms.

The anti-graft body registered the case at the Special Court, accusing former chairmen of the authority, Digambar Jha and Purushottam Khanal, along with 17 others, of irregularities in the purchase of the Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) by the NTA.

Former senior director Ananda Raj Khanal of the NTA, incumbent directors Dipesh Acharya and Min Prasad Aryal, and deputy directors Binod Chandra Shrestha, Surendra Lal Hada and Rewati Ram Pantha have been made defendants in the case, according to a statement issued by the CIAA on Thursday.

Likewise, assistant directors Bijay Kumar Rai Yadav, Nirajan Koirala, Sandeep Adhikari and Surya Prasad Lamichhane and Deputy Director Achyutananda Mishra have also been accused of corruption.

The CIAA has accused the individuals and consultant Nuemera JV of illicitly profiting from the procurement of the device management system and causing losses to the NTA.

The anti-graft body has filed the case demanding the recovery of Rs919.83 million, which the government allegedly incurred as a loss, from those accused.

It has also demanded that the accused be sent to prison and a penalty of another Rs232.06 million be imposed on the defendants.

The CIAA has accused the officials of submitting the bidding document without preparing cost estimation with a breakdown and of presenting baseless and fictitious documents. According to the commission, the officials had submitted the bid documents only manually even as the Public Procurement Act 2007 has made electronic bidding (e-bidding) mandatory.

Likewise, the officials had allegedly stifled competition in the bidding process to favour certain firms by introducing a ‘bid security’ provision, which is not required by the law, and managed to obtain approval for ‘unnaturally high’ quotation prices.

The commission has also asserted that their acts of hiding and destroying official documents, preparing forged dossiers and quoting abnormally inflated prices were proven in its investigation.

The commission has accused them of deliberately overlooking various mandatory provisions and a report presented by another consultant TAEC Consult, which had recommended a review of the request for proposal.