The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) stated that government bodies committed millions of rupees corruption in the relief and rescue following the April 25 Gorkha Earthquake and its aftershocks.

Krishna Hari Pushkar, the spokesman of the anti-graft constitutional body, releasing the investigation report related to the corruption scandal on Sunday, said the lowest to the highest bodies were found involved in the graft.

"Bills for goods purchased in Kathmandu and Nuwakot have been issued from Dolakha and there are instances of many irregularities like the tarpauline sheets found in the Nepali market being purchased from New Delhi, India," he said.

Pushkar said in course of investigation, the office-holders in government bodies were found involved in inhuman works. It is stated that more than Rs 15 billion from the Prime Minister's Disaster Relief Fund and additional amount from the regular budget has been spent for carrying out relief and rescue works immediately following the earthquake.

The CIAA said it has prepared the report based on investigation into news reports and complaints related to the misuse of the relief goods dispatched for rescue and relief to the earthquake-affected districts, to the relief distribution being more centred in the accessible areas than the remote ones, to the relief goods not reaching the genuine earthquake affected people, to the government amount spent against the set parametres and to some businessmen taking benefit of the customs exemption facility in the name of relief goods taking undue advantage of the emergency situation following the natural disaster and using it for business purpose, among others.

The CIAA had formed the investigation task team on August 16 and the report was prepared on the basis of the investigations, on-site observation and data collection on the misuse and irregularities of the relief assistance carried by the task force.

The report points to several anomalies in the relief distribution and the collection of data on the earthquake affected people like the government team with the technicians sent from the Centre not reaching the remote villages in the affected districts but preparing the data from the district headquarters and preparing their assessment reports within a short time being influenced by local pressure and in some places not being able to identify the real earthquake victims and due to the unrealistic data collected by the government team, the fake earthquake victims also taking the relief amount and the earthquake-affected ID card.

Temporary shelters constructed for earthquake survivors with the help of China at Tudikhel, Kathmandu.

Similarly, while testing the sample of the readymade gabion wire procured by the Conservation Office, its weight was found to have only 18.9kg against the standard 27.30kg.

The essentials as measurement, items used, wages fixed for setting up temporary teaching learning centres were not clearly mentioned, but given a lump sum expense, and claimed for payment in installment. It was done so despite having huge chuck of money from Asian Development Bank through the PM's Natural Disaster Rescue Fund.

Moreover, it was not relevant in the case of Ministry of Agriculture Development to release Rs 25 million to the Livestock Health Directorate nearly one month after the Earthquake in the name of management and treatment of injured livestock.

The CIAA investigation has further revealed that the tarpaulin sheets bought for the Earthquake victims were non-standard and cheap.

"While buying different items as tarpaulin sheet, food stuffs, water pipe and fittings, and gabion wires, same standard was maintained; there was short procurement process; and the office of the monitoring was evaded while procuring different times," mentioned the report.

Spokesperson Pushkar said the CIAA has continued investigation in the serious issues, and the accused ones would be filed cases after the investigation. RSS