National Vigilance Centre Orders Action Against Officials Over ‘Faulty’ App

The National Vigilance Centre (NVC) has instructed Deposit and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DCGC) to take action against those involved in accepting a faulty application, reports The Kathmandu Post.

The Backstory:

• A complaint was registered at Hello Nepal claiming that the payment of the software had been made before the software had started to work. Hello Nepal is a complaint receiving body under the Prime minister’s office.
• In response to the complaint, Hello Nepal had referred the complaint to the National Vigilance Center (NVC).
• The National Vigilance Centre (NVC) conducted an investigation based on the complaint and has recently sent a letter to the Deposit and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DCGC) instructing to take action against those involved in accepting the software without confirming its functionality as per the existing law.

The Details:

• DCGC’s former general manager Dandapani Paudel had received the software, on December 4, 2015.
• The DCGC had formally acknowledged receipt of the software shortly after its installation without proper testing.
• Sushil P Padhan of Professional Computer System Private Limited (PCS) had developed and installed the software.

What they are saying:

• According to the DCGC, a software application for deposit guarantee is running well but an application that is supposed to deal with compensation payment is not working.
• “The DCGC was not involved in issuing a tender notice, evaluating bidders, awarding the contract and making payment,” Mishra said, adding that this gave no room for financial irregularities from the DCGC officials. “We are working on the software. It will be sorted out in a couple of weeks.”
• Current DCGC Chief Executive Officer, Bishnu Babu Mishra admitted weakness on part of the previous administration in accepting software.
• But Mishra, who is also indicted in the complaint along with Paudel, maintains that there haven’t been any financial irregularities from DCGC officials.
• In a letter sent to Adam Smith International Limited on December 14, 2015, Paudel has confirmed that ‘IT project under DFID assistance to developing application software and hardware required for DCGC operation has been completed’.
• On August 17, 2016, Paudel also gave a letter to the PCS certifying that it analyzed, developed and installed IT system as per the DCGC requirements.