KATHMANDU, Sept 22: Even as corruption has been on the rise in Nepal, the cases registered by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority are becoming weaker. Of the cases registered by the Authority (CIAA) at the Special Court in the financial year 2078/079, corruption was proved in only about 39 percent cases. The Special Court has acquitted many corruption-accused, citing lack of enough evidence.
In the last eleven years, the data on the verdicts of corruption cases filed by the CIAA is the weakest. It is mentioned in the 32nd annual report of the CIAA that in this period, about 89 percent of the verdicts were in favor of the CIAA in two financial years - 2067/068 and 2075/076. Chief Commissioner Prem Kumar Rai submitted the 32nd report of the authority to President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Wednesday.
Reforming Anti-Corruption Legislations
The authority has been prosecuting cases related to bribery, fake educational certificates, damage to public property, illegal acquisition of wealth, revenue leakage, etc. Although the number of cases is high, the number of convictions is low. The authority has only counted the number of registered cases. The authority itself has admitted that it has succeeded in only fewer registered cases.
"According to the authority's data so far, there has been less success in the cases filed last year. There is little success in the cases that have been filed. The verdicts of the cases are not in our hands," CIAA Spokesperson Shyam Prasad Bhandari said, "After the process of red-handed arrest was dismissed by the Supreme Court, the failure rate has increased because of lack of evidence”.
Even in the corruption index published by Transparency International Nepal, Nepal has not been able to improve in terms of corruption control. Spokesman Bhandari said that all the regulatory bodies should make a collective effort to control corruption.
