The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority on Thursday filed a corruption case at the Special Court against 16 individuals and two companies in connection with the procurement of Telecommunication Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (Teramocs) equipment for the Nepal Telecommunication Authority.
According to CIAA spokesperson Rajendra Kumar Paudel, the anti-corruption watchdog has sought Rs 3. 21 billion from each of them, including Nepali Congress lawmaker and former minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet.
The CIAA has stated that this scam came to light when Basnet was the Minister for Information and Communications.
Similarly, the then chairpersons of the Nepal Telecommunications Digambar Jha and Purushottam Khanal, the then members Dhan Raj Gyawali and Tika Prasad Upreti, directors Bijay Kumar Ray, Surendra Lal Hada and Dipesh Acharya and then then deputy directors Rewati Raya Panta, Suresh Basnet, Harinya Prasad Bastakoti, Achyutananda Mishra and Sanjeev Adhikari have been made defendants.
Likewise, the corruption charges have also been registered against consulting firm Vanrise Solutions SAL and its CEO Jamal Anauti and its local agent Connection Trade Link Pvt Ltd and its chairman Dilip Kumar Gurung and its director Tej Prasad Kharel.
On January 19, 2024, the parliamentary Committee for Education, Health and Information Technology directed the government to submit documents related to Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) and Teramocs.
The Committee had directed the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to submit papers related to policy decision, purchase process, payment and rationale of implementation concerning MDMS and Teramocs from the start.
The House panel also decided to ask for the ministry-level investigation report on these topics and the court decisions related to the same and to take further decisions on the basis of consultations with experts.
Earlier on December 27, 2023, the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament had instructed the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority to carry out further investigation into the technology procurement process of Teramocs and proceed with the prosecution in accordance with the law.
Teramocs is a technology conceptualised for the lawful interception and domestic voice/data traffic monitoring with fraud detection and control over the network of telecom service operators, who are providing telecom and internet services to the public.
