Here's an incident that reveals how helpless the CIAA is despite winning accolades from the entire country for arresting corrupt revenue department officials. Once they announced the Baneswor assembly, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka looked to the Home Ministry for funds. In mid-June, a sum of Rs 9.2 million was sanctioned from the Home Ministry on the instructions of Khum Bahadur Khadka, and sent to the prime minister.

Fearing that they would get into trouble with the accounts committee, the Auditor General and concerned officials who might investigate such a large transfer, Home Ministry officials took protective measures, and told the prime minister that a receipt was necessary. The prime minister directed them to prepare the necessary papers and, along with the home minister, signed the receipts.

When other officials found out about the money, they appealed to the CIAA, saying that the money had been misused. The CIAA began an investigation. Khum Bahadur Khadka then put pressure on CIAA chief Surya Nath Upadhyaya, ringing him directly and threatened to put him behind bars on the grounds that he was a Maoist informant. Then, Undersecretary Dwarika Acharya and senior officer Janak Sharma, who oversee accounts at the Home Ministry, sanctioned the amount and gave a copy of the signed receipt to the CIAA. The whole process was underplayed.

The CIAA has directed the Council of Ministers to clarify where the money-meant for intelligence matters and to pay informants- is being used. If the council is not able to do so, it should specify the reasons. While the commission has come down hard on officials of the revenue department during the initial phases of its anti-corruption campaign, it has let the prime minister and the home minister walk away, even though it was handed proof on a platter.