11.2 Bribery and Corruption

The offences: bribery (the giving and taking — the transaction's two ends criminalized), extortion by officials, possession of disproportionate assets, the abuse of public office, the illicit enrichment family. Nepal's machinery: the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) — the constitutional anti-corruption body (Constitution, Articles 238-242: the appointment, the powers, the jurisdiction) — investigating and prosecuting corruption by public officials under the CIAA Act, 2058 (1991); the Crime and Punishment against State Act, 2046 (the State's own protective statute); the preventive machinery (the National Vigilance Centre; the public- procurement controls); the asset-declaration regimes. The doctrinal points: the public-official element (who is an official — the definition's breadth: the employees of public corporations and the political cadres of public bodies); the bribery's completion (the offer's acceptance — the "attempted bribery" that succeeds as the offence); the disproportionate-assets offence (the reverse burden debate — the unexplained wealth as evidence or as offence); the private-sector corruption (the commercial bribery — the international instruments' newer front); the agency's own accountability (the CIAA's jurisdiction limits — the constitutional officers outside; the judiciary's independence preserved).