E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, OCT 18 - Nepal Police and its peacekeeping mission in Sudan have landed into another trouble with the Sudanese government barring the use of new Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) on its roads and demanding that old APCs dumped for the last five years be removed from the country.

Nepal Police, which has been asked to bring the old vechicles back to Nepal on its own, does not know how it will bring back the APCs, given the high transportation cost involved and the notoriety attached with the vehicles.

The government has directed the Police Welfare Foud, a subsidiary of the Nepal Police, to handle the expenditure with an assurance that the amount will be reimbursed after the work is complete.

According to Binod Singh, the Nepal Police Spokesman, the Sudan government has been mounting pressure on UNMAD and the Nepali Formed Police Unit to remove the non-operational vehicles.

Nepal Police is hesitant to take any quick decision for fear that it could face another corruption charge. Alltogether, 23 sitting police officials, including IGP Ramesh Chanda Thakuri, were removed on charges of misusing Rs 290 million while procuring the substandard APCs.

"The Cabinet has asked us to mange funds to bring back four APCs. A board meeting of Police Welfare Fund will take a call on this," Superintendent of Nepal Police Mansingh Bohara, who is also the Section Chief at Police Welfare Fund, said.

Police officials argue that issue should have been sorted out through diplomatic channels as the problem was a result of the soured relationship between Sudan and the UN.

The Department of Logistics under the Police Headquarters is yet to forward a proposal to bring the old vechicles to the Police Welfare Fund. "We will take a decision as per our legal limitations," said Bohara. After the UNMAD last year threatened to repatriate Nepali peacekeepers for not providing the needed logistics, Nepal Police had awarded a Singapore-based company to procure the APCs and the company later provided the vehicles manufactured in China to Nepal Police for US$ 397,800 each. Four APCs were ferried to Sudan on Aug 14.

Officials at the anti-graft body termed the government's decision to force the police to bring back the substandard APCs "nonsense" and "impractical". "Nepal Police must challenge the decision. It is not mandatory to accept each and every decision of the government," CIAA Spokesman Ishwori Paudyal said.

Given the complications, it seems the Sudan mission will have to wait for some more months before it gets the much needed logistics. The mission is working without APCs for the last five years. "Even if the board of the Police Welfare Fund gives its nod, we must invite public tender and it will take some time," Bohara said.

Posted on: 2011-10-19 03:17

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