Kathmandu, October 29
Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) lawmaker Khagendra Sunar was absent from a parliamentary subcommittee meeting on Thursday after his party barred him from attending public and formal events pending an investigation into an audio recording allegedly containing offensive language and threats directed at a woman.
The party is investigating Sunar over the audio recording, which has been made public. He has been barred from participating in public office-related activities and formal or public events until the investigation is completed.
The second meeting of the subcommittee formed to study the procurement of uniforms for election police, Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force Nepal was held on Thursday morning at Singha Durbar.
The meeting discussed the subcommittee’s terms of reference.
The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives formed the subcommittee on October 2, to investigate the procurement of election police uniforms.
The nine-member subcommittee, led by RSP lawmaker Manish Jha, held its first meeting on October 7, when preliminary discussions were held.
The subcommittee includes lawmakers Ain Mahar, Yogesh Gauchan Thakali, Aren Rai, Khagendra Sunar, Khushbu Oli, Ramesh Kumar Malla, Ganesh Dhimal and Mahendra Bahadur Shahi.
It has been given two months to examine complaints and information received from Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force Nepal and prepare a report. Its working procedure sets November 16 as the deadline for completing the initial collection and review of information.
Nepal Police procured uniforms for election police in January last year. Sunar has repeatedly raised questions over alleged irregularities in the procurement process.
For the March 5 House of Representatives election, Nepal Police recruited 133,980 election police personnel, while the Armed Police Force recruited 15,110, bringing the total to 149,090.
Depending on the geographical region of deployment, the expenditure per election police personnel ranged from Rs 50,954 to Rs 86,484. The personnel received payments covering 40 days of service, including remuneration, rations, transportation and snacks.
The government allocated uniform allowances of Rs 11,500 for personnel deployed in mountain regions, Rs 7,945 for those in the hills and Rs 6,170 for those in the Tarai. Around Rs 1 billion was released under the uniform budget.
Police headquarters also provided Rs 848 as preparation expenses for travel to and from deployment locations and a lump sum of Rs 1,200 for snacks during four days of training. The current controversy concerns the uniform allowance.
The parliamentary subcommittee was formed to investigate concerns that election police recruited for only around one and a half months were provided with substandard uniform materials.
