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Kathmandu, February 20

The Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament today directed the government to completely halt the process of setting up the planned security press.

A few hours after the release of an audiotape that revealed Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota, who has since resigned, negotiating kickbacks with a Swiss equipment supplier in the government’s security printing press procurement deal, the House panel wrote a letter to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology asking it not to proceed with the security press procurement and establishment process until further notice.

After the audiotape was released, members of the House panel had asked PAC Chairman Bharat Kumar Sah to investigate the process of procuring the security printing press.

The government had initiated the process of establishing a security printing press in the country to print secured documents, certificates and stickers, including passports, excise-duty stickers and driving licences on its own. On November 23, the Cabinet had given approval to MoCIT to procure necessary materials for the printing press either from the German firm Bundesdruckerei or the IN Groupe of France.

However, PAC had started a probe into the establishment process of the security

Read the full story on The Himalayan Times

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