Pardafas Reporter
A member of the Board of Directors of Nepal Rastra Bank has been accused of soliciting a bribe of 30,000 dollars (about Rs. 3.6 million) from a businessman belonging to a big business house of the country.
Himal Khabar has received information that Dr. Subodh Kumar Karna, a member of the Board of Directors of NRB, had made such a bargain with Nirvana Chaudhary, Managing Director of Chaudhary Group. Managing Director Nirvana is the son of Member of the House of Representatives and businessman Binod Chaudhary.
Sources from both the Ministry of Finance and Nepal Rastra Bank have confirmed this. Although Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba are aware of the bribery case, the process of taking action against Karna has not started yet.
At a public event on Friday, Finance Minister Sharma said he had heard a member of the NRB's board of directors soliciting bribes. According to the finance minister, the managers of the central bank had bargained for 30,000 but did not know the official status.
"After becoming a member of such a board of directors, there is transparency ?. Not everyone has to have dignity in their place," the finance minister had asked. According to a source in the Ministry of Finance, the Finance Minister has already been informed about the bargaining committee members of the NRB even though he did not disclose them at the public event.
According to the information received by Himal Khabar, Karna had sent a mobile message to Managing Director Nirvana at least a month ago asking for 30,000 US dollars on the condition that the Chaudhary group would help untie the knot in the National Bank. Nirvana immediately informed the matter to his father Binod Chaudhary, the chairman of the Chaudhary group and a member of the House of Representatives. Sources claim that Binod Chaudhary conveyed the information to Finance Minister Sharma and Prime Minister Deuba a few days after Karna sent the message again.
Sources claim that Karna bargained on the condition that he would facilitate the merger process between Nabil Bank and Nepal Bangladesh Bank, which is the main shareholder of Chaudhary Group, help in tax exemption and open the accounting proposal of CG Cement stuck in the central bank.
Chaudhary Group has proposed to transfer shares in CG Cement in the name of non-resident Nepali Rahul Chaudhary. However, the proposal has been stalled due to the risk of going abroad in the form of a profit dividend received from the cement company.
According to a central bank source, the NRB Board of Directors has also received information about Karna's activities. Sources claim that Karna has been left out of the board meeting as a member of the board of directors. "We have received information that the board of directors has informed the accused Karna to resign," a senior central bank official told Himal Khabar.
Karna, a member of the Board of Directors of NRB, has sent a message to Himal Khabar stating that the allegations against him are baseless and completely false. "In the current context, this is a politically motivated allegation," he said.
The government led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had appointed him as a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank for five years in 2075. He has one year left in his term. Karna is a former president of the Nepal Institute of Chartered Accountants and a former president of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA). He is also the director of UHY Subodh Associates Company.
He had earlier applied for the post of Auditor General in 2073 BS. Karna had gone to the Supreme Court against the Constitutional Council's recommendation to appoint Tankamani Sharma as the Auditor General in April 2074 BS.
Stating that Sharma was not qualified to be the Auditor General, he had also demanded extradition and injunction against the Government of Nepal, the Constitutional Council and others. However, a joint bench of the then Chief Justice Om Prakash Mishra and Justice Kedar Prasad Chalise had in 2075, dismissed his writ petition.
The Board of Directors of NRB consists of the Governor, two Deputy Governors and the Finance Secretary ex-officio. Apart from this, the National Bank Act 2058 has made provision for 'three directors appointed by the Government of Nepal from among the eminent persons in the field of economic, monetary, banking, financial and commercial law'.
According to the governments of different times Dr. Shriram Poudel, Ramji Regmi and Dr. Subodh Kumar Karna were appointed as a member of the board of directors. The NRB Act stipulates that a person of high moral character should be a member of the board of directors.
Article 22950 of the National Bank Act stipulates that the Board of Directors may be removed if it is found to have done harm to the banking and financial system of the country and if the work of the bank is found to be dishonest or malicious in its actions. There is provision in the act to give proper opportunity to do so.
The government on Thursday formed a judicial inquiry committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Purushottam Bhandari with the aim of removing NRB Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari from office. With the formation of the committee, the officers have been automatically suspended.
Karna, a member of the Board of Directors of Rashtra Bank, also said that the Ministry of Finance should investigate the issue of bribery. "The investigation has been started after the governor remained silent despite repeated reports of Karna's immoral activities," a ministry source said.
However, the NRB Act does not give the power of action to the Governor or the Board of Directors to the members of the Board of Directors. Article 22 of the Act provides that the Government of Nepal, the Council of Ministers can remove an incompetent operator from office. However, the finance ministry has taken Karna's message as the basis for an investigation into the officer.
The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies had recommended action against Karna in February 2076 after it was found that Karna, who had audited the Biratnagar Jute Mill at a loss to the government, had violated its legal obligation without comment. Nepal Live had mentioned that the then Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Lekhraj Bhatta, had recommended the Nepal Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAN) to take action against Karna through a ministerial decision.
This news was written by journalist Ramesh Kumar in the online edition of Himal Khabar. epardafas.com has only translated it into English.
Read Original Version At https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/129222
