Nepal Dec 12 : Nepal’s anti-corruption body has exposed what it calls the nation’s largest infrastructure scandal involving the China-funded Pokhara International Airport, accusing a state-owned Chinese firm of colluding with local politicians and officials to inflate project costs by $75 million.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) informed a special court that the airport’s construction expenses were artificially hiked from an initial estimate of $170 million to $244 million, creating avenues for substantial financial leakages and illicit payments through manipulated contracts and procurement.
CAMC Engineering, the Chinese state-owned company handling the project under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), faces direct implication in the graft probe for allegedly working hand-in-glove with Nepali bureaucrats and politicians to engineer the overpricing.
This development marks a major setback for China’s global infrastructure outreach, highlighting risks of corruption and mismanagement in BRI projects across South Asia, as Nepal’s probe could lead to legal repercussions and repayment demands from the implicated parties.
