KATHMANDU, Nepal: Nepal´s anti-graft watchdog has filed charges against 13 people, including a former finance minister, and a Chinese firm in a case alleging multi-million-dollar corruption in a major airport project, officials said on Friday.
The charges are the latest in a slew of graft allegations involving the China-backed airport construction project in the tourist hub of Pokhara, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas.
“We have registered a case against 13 people and a company for giving tax exemption, which allowed double benefit to the contractor company,” Suresh Neupane, spokesman for the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), told AFP.
Nepal´s former finance minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and former finance secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari were among those charged, along with China CAMC Engineering and two company bosses, the CIAA said in a statement on Thursday.
