April 19: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has called five foreign companies involved in the procurement of Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft by Nepal Airlines Corporation to record their statement. This is the second time the anti-graft body has asked the companies to record their statement.

CIAA Spokesperson Pradeep Kumar Koirala said in a statement that representatives of High Fly X, Ireland, AAR Crop, USA, Aviation Capital AMBM and Norton Rose of Germany and High Fly International of Portugal have been called for recording their statements.

CIAA issued a public notice on Thursday, April 18, asking the representatives of the international companies to be present at its office to record their statement within seven days.

The Public Accounts Committee has alleged that there has been corruption of over Rs 4 billion in the procurement process of the two wide-body aircraft for the state-run airlines.

Nepal Airlines Corporation had signed a deal with the AAR Crop of America for the procurement of two Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft.  But allegation of corruption came to the fore soon after AAR in a statement mentioned about the involvement of other partnering companies for the delivery of the wide-body aircraft to NAC.