Pokhara, 7 December| The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has named China CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd., the Chinese company contracted to build the Pokhara International Airport (PIA), as a defendant in the corruption case related to project irregularities. The agreement for the PIA was signed in 2014 between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Chinese company. Under the agreement, which was financed by a $216 million loan from the China Exim Bank, CAMCE was supposed to construct the airport as a ‘Turn Key Project,’ meaning it was responsible for the design, procurement, and construction of the 2,500-meter-long and 45-meter-wide runway before handing it over to Nepal.
The CIAA alleges a major irregularity regarding the use of construction materials. Although the contract stipulated that soil and gravel for the construction should be brought from five kilometers away—which would have raised the airport’s elevation—the Chinese company instead used materials from the construction site itself. This allowed the company to save a significant expense intended for transporting the materials, with $8 million specifically allocated for soil and gravel handling. Due to the condition that only Chinese companies could compete for the Chinese-loan-funded project, CAMCE was selected from nine applicants. The CIAA suggests that the appointed consultants, ERMC and CAMCE’s sister concern, IPPR, were primarily hired to validate the Chinese contractor’s work.
