The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority today filed charge sheets at the Special Court against 14 officials of the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2002. According to CIAA Chief Lok Man Singh Karki’s press coordinator Bhawani Subedi, charge sheets were filed against PAF Chief Executive Director Raj Babu Shrestha, Portfolio Managers Lal Bahadur Siwa, Dhanaraj Sah, Ajay Kumar Patel, Sanjay Kumar Jha, Jayraj Panta, Sandeepnath Upreti, Akhilesh Chandra Das, Hareram Wagle, Durga Bahadur Gandhari, Accounts officers Dilipraj Joshi, Pravin Ghimire, and Assistant Accounts Officer Satish Kumar Chaudhari and Administration and Finance Chief Manoj Sipalu. CIAA has sought to recover Rs 27.8 million from the defendants. A conviction under the anti-corruption act also carries a jail sentence. Subedi said the defendants had made fake bills. “We also found they had not cleared advance payment taken from the office,” he said, adding that allegations of corruption against other office bearers were being probed. Subedi said CIAA was also investigating if foreign assistance to the fund was embezzled. According to Spokesperson of Special Court Nati Babu Lamichhane, if convicted, they could be jailed for three months to three years. “But as Raj Babu Shrestha is a Special Class employee, the CIAA has sought additional three years’ jail sentence for him.” PAF Act 2006 bars operating expenses in excess of Rs 50 million or four percent of the total fund allocated for projects — whichever is higher — if the fund allocated is more than Rs 1 billion. In the last fiscal, the Fund allocated a budget of Rs 2.80 billion for program implementation, says a report of the Office of the Auditor-General. Based on the ceiling of four percent, the Fund’s annual operating expense should not have exceeded Rs 112.05 million. But it stood at Rs 161.80 million last fiscal. Also, Section 19(4) and 21(3) of the PAF Act include provisions on salary, benefits, and working conditions. The Act, however, is silent on the salary and benefits of the vice-chairman. As per Section 24 of PAF Rules, the monthly salary of the executive director and other staff of the Fund can be determined after approval from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Finance. However, approval was not taken when the minimum monthly salary of vice-chairman, executive director, and staff members was raised from a range of Rs 35,000 to Rs 162,000, the report of the Office of the Attorney General said.