The National Vigilance Centre has instructed the Deposit and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DCGC) to take action against the officials responsible for accepting a software application without confirming its functionality. The corporation had received the software on December 4, 2015 after its installation, but it has yet to function fully as per the need of the corporation.

According to the DCGC, a software application for deposit guarantee is running well but an application that is supposed to deal with compensation payment is not working.

The DCGC had formally acknowledged receipt of the software shortly after its installation without proper testing. Sushil P Padhan of Professional Computer System Private Limited had developed and installed the software. Corporation’s former general manager Dandapani Paudel had received the software.

A complain has been registered at the Hello Nepal, a complaint receiving body under the Prime Minister’s Office, claiming that the payment has been made  before the software started to work. The Hello Nepal then had referred the complaint to the National Vigilance Centre (NVC).

After an investigation, the NVC recently sent a letter to the DCGC instructing it to take action against those involved in accepting the software without confirming its functionality as per the existing law. “We wrote to the DCGC to initiate action against those responsible after finding that due process was not followed while accepting the software,” said NVC Spokesperson Bishnu Raj Lamichhane.

The software was installed as part of the financial sector reform programme with the assistance from British aid agency Department for International Development (DFID).

The DFID had awarded the contract of providing the software to British company—Adam Smith International Limited. This company then sub-contracted the task to Sushil P Padhan Professional Computer System Private Limited (PCS).

In a letter sent to Adam Smith International Limited on December 14, 2015, Paudel has confirmed that ‘IT project under DFID assistance to develop application software and hardware required for DCGC operation has been completed’. On August 17, 2016, Paudel also gave a letter to the PSC certifying that it analysed, developed and installed IT system as per the DCGC requirements.

Current DCGC Chief Executive Officer Bishnu Babu Mishra admitted weakness on part of the previous administration in accepting software. But Mishra, who is also indicted in the complaint along with Paudel, maintains there have not been any

financial irregularities from DCGC officials.

“The DCGC was not involved in issuing tender notice, evaluating bidders, awarding the contract and making payment,” Mishra said, adding that this gave no room for financial irregularities from the DCGC officials. “We are working on the software. It will be sorted out in a couple of weeks.”