With the parliamentary probe panel failing to trace the alleged entry of unauthorised people to the Finance Ministry on the night of May 28, the eve of the budget presentation day, the 11-member panel is preparing to write its report on Wednesday. The development comes after the CCTV footage of the night retrieved by the Nepal Police was found to be of poor quality and unclear.

The developments suggest that the panel could give a clean chit to former finance minister Janardan Sharma in the controversy. Experts and observers say this is bound to happen, because the government mechanism, they claim, has been used to cover up the incident.

Sharma had resigned as finance minister on July 6 following the formation of the investigation committee.

Members representing the main opposition party—CPN-UML—have said they would discuss how additional proofs can be collected while those representing the ruling parties are in favour of ending the study concluding that nothing was found against the former finance minister.

“We couldn't find anything in the retrieved CCTV footage, because the clips were unclear,” said Pradeep Gyawali, a member of the panel representing the UML. “We will discuss how additional evidence could be collected.”

He said the panel watched the clips recovered from the forensic lab of the Nepal Police and also heard the briefing of the technical experts, who said that was all they could retrieve off the hard drive. “We could not find what we were actually looking for,” Gyawali said. “This is all that I can say for now.”

The members of the panel representing the UML have been accusing the officials of the Finance Ministry and government bodies of not cooperating with the investigation.

However, panel members close to the ruling parties have said they made all possible efforts to collect evidence but could not establish the allegations, so the panel will now write whatever it has found.

“We did everything we could. Now the responsibility of the probe panel is to report the findings,” said Dev Prasad Gurung, a member of the panel who is also the chief whip of the CPN (Maoist Centre). “Now we will focus on writing the report.”

While another member Man Bahadur Bishwakarma, who represents the ruling Nepali Congress, said the conclusion of the panel is that nothing was found against the former finance minister to prove the allegations.

Another member of the panel, however, said part of the footage showed a vehicle entering the ministry at midnight on May 28 and they will try to collect the details.

“We have no clue except that a vehicle had entered the ministry premises at midnight on May 28,” said Surendra Yadav, a member of the panel.

But other members including Bishwakarma dismissed the doubts cast by UML members and claimed that many vehicles keep coming and going at the ministry.

With the panel divided, the members representing the ruling parties are saying there is no need to seek additional time for the probe. This means the former finance minister will most likely get a clean chit.

Since the additional seven days’ time given to the panel expires on Thursday, the panel will discuss the findings and start writing the report on Wednesday. “We will discuss report writing while exploring if there are any other ways to gather evidence,” said Laxman Lal Karna, a member representing the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party.

Although the panel members representing the UML have demanded that phone call details of the former finance minister should be studied, the members representing the ruling parties have flatly rejected the idea saying that would breach Sharma’s personal freedom.

But despite the objections from other members, UML lawmakers said they would press the panel to seek phone call details.

The investigation committee, formed at the insistence of the main opposition CPN-UML, has four members from the UML and two each from the Nepali Congress and the CPN (Maoist Centre). And there is one member each from the CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janata Samajbadi Party, and the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party.

The members of the committee are Khagaraj Adhikari, Pradeep Gyawali, Bhanubhakta Dhakal and Bimala BK from the UML; Dev Gurung and Shakti Basnet from the Maoist Centre; Man Bahadur Bishwarkarma and Sitaram Yadav representing the Congress; Sarala Kumari Yadav from the Unified Socialist; Laxman Lal Karna from the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party; and Surendra Yadav from the Janata Samajbadi Party.

Just as the parliamentary committee struggled to decipher the retrieved CCTV footage of the Finance Ministry, the Home Ministry told the panel that it does not have CCTV footage of the Singha Durbar gates of May 28 night, as the drives can record clips of only 16 days.

“We issued a circular today to all the offices under the Home Ministry to ensure that they keep the CCTV footage of their offices safe for at least three months,” said Phanindra Mani Pokharel, spokesperson for the ministry.

Now the committee members are faced with further challenges for the lack of the footage of the night of May 28—the time when Sharma allegedly brought in two unauthorised persons to the Finance Ministry to tweak tax rates.

Sharma presented the budget in Parliament on May 29 and he has been accused of allowing two outsiders into the Ministry of Finance on the night of May 28 to tweak taxes to benefit some businesses.

After failing to get the CCTV footage of the night from the Finance Ministry, the committee last Wednesday handed over the hard drive to Nepal Police to see if the CCTV data could be retrieved.

And Nepal Police on Monday submitted a report, along with dozens of clips, to the committee, which after failing to decipher them invited forensic experts from the law enforcement agency to explain the technicalities.

Experts have alleged that the political parties seem to have already made a deal and are preparing to give a clean chit to the former finance minister.

“Trying to conceal evidence is the biggest evidence for the panel to take a decision,” said a former finance secretary asking not to be named. “I think the members don’t have the guts and seem to have made a secret deal.”

He also said the UML members will say they tried their best to find the evidence and everything will be fine. “How can the officials of the Finance Ministry speak up when they have been told that Sharma himself will return as finance minister?” he said.

Meanwhile, the claims by the Finance Ministry and the Home Ministry that their CCTV hard drives could store the data of only 13 days and 16 days, respectively, go against the CCTV/Camera Installation and Operation Procedure 2015.

The procedure was introduced by the Home Ministry itself.

Clause 3 A(5) of the procedure, which includes the provisions for the public use of CCTV cameras, states that the footage recorded must be kept safely for “at least three months”.

However, when asked about the three-month safekeeping, Finance Ministry spokesman Dhundi Prasad Niraula said the provision was made for the Home Ministry’s internal purposes and is not legally binding for other ministries.

“The procedure prepared by the Home Ministry could serve as a reference for the safekeeping of CCTV records though,” said Niraula.

Niraula, however, said this controversy has made all the ministries aware of the need to keep CCTV data safe for longer periods.