ACC – Tshering Tobgay

Clear to run(?)

September 13, 2012Democracy, Political parties82 Comments

About 6 weeks ago, at a press conference, the prime minister claimed that the Election Commission of Bhutan should disqualify the opposition party from taking part in the next round of elections for failing to clear its debts by the 30 June deadline. Remarkably, the prime minister also suggested that the two members in opposition should not be permitted to run in the next elections … not as members of their current party, not by starting a new party, not by joining another party. As it turned out, the election commission, having reviewed the status of the two existing…

Gyelpozhing: who’s right?

January 28, 2012Justice11 Comments

Almost six months ago, Tenzing Lamsang exposed the Gyelpozhing land grab case, and explained how laws of the land had been broken to acquire public land and redistribute them to influential people. A week after that, Dasho Neten Zangmo, the Anticorruption Commission Chairperson, was quoted as saying: We will look into the case and if there is any element of corruption, abuse of power and conflict of interest and if land has been taken unjustly from private people then we will further investigate the case. It’s been almost half a year since ACC’s assurances. So I was happy to…

Observing anticorruption day

December 11, 2011General17 Comments

Here's how I observed International Anticorruption Day yesterday: One, I went through Transparency International’s Corruption Perception index report for 2011. Bhutan is rated 5.7 (10 means perceived to be very clean; 0 means very corrupt) and is ranked a decent 38 out of the 182 countries and territories that were studied. Bhutan’s rating of 5.7 remains unchanged from the 2010 corruption perception levels. Not bad, but we can, and must, do better. Two, I tuned in to see BBS’s live debate on the topic “Is Bhutan doing enough in fighting corruption?” The debate, which was organised jointly with IMS,…

i-Question

November 4, 2011Government22 Comments

Did DHI try to bribe the prime minister and cabinet ministers? If, as the PM claimed in Kuensel, DHI had indeed offered them “the latest generation iPhones”, then that would amount to blatant corruption. And the Anticorruption Commission should investigate it thoroughly. Why should this particular gift be seen as “blatant corruption”? Because three years ago, during the new year, DHI had given Nokia cell phones to all officials holding cabinet rank, including the PM and the opposition leader. But, as far I know, most of the recipients did not accept the gifts; most of them had returned the…

Investigating Gyelpozhing

October 28, 2011Justice21 Comments

Last Saturday, more than two months after Business Bhutan broke their story about alleged land grabbing in Gyelpozhing by senior public servants, the Anticorruption Commission announced that they: “… are in the process of studying laws related to land, policy issues, analysing and re- viewing the complaints they received with regards to Gyalpoizhing land case.” The Gyelpozhing land case has raised serious questions about alleged corruption involving our senior-most public servants when land was acquired and redistributed in Gyelpozhing. This is a big case. And it is an important one. So the ACC is correct in studying the case…

We should (not) be proud

September 8, 2011Government47 Comments

I applaud how the prime minister has responded to allegations that he, and other powerful people, were allotted land illegally in Gyelpozhing. He has written to ACC to investigate the allegations, and he has promised that offenders, especially those holding current political authority, will be made fully accountable. The fact that the head of the government demands to be investigated is a very good precedent. We should be proud. But I also condemn how the prime minister has responded to the same allegations. He has questioned the motive for and timing of the media’s reporting on the so-called “Gyelpozhing…

Utter nonsense

June 7, 2011Legislature12 Comments

The National Assembly’s live TV broadcasts are proving useful. One observer, for instance, a senior civil servant, followed the recent debate on the Anticorruption Bill, and noticed that I “didn’t utter a word” during the discussions. She spoke to Kuensel about it, which reported that: A senior civil servant said the opposition leader was very emphatic about the severity of the tobacco Act’s penalty that he went to the extent of hiring a lawyer for the first Bhutanese to be convicted under the Act, pro bono. “He didn’t utter a word when members were deliberating the corruption amendment bill,”…

Opposing corruption

April 19, 2011Democracy28 Comments

“guardian” entered three comments on my last post. All three were on corruption. In the first comment, “guardian” complained that I hadn’t given any attention to this important issue: OL simply needs to get his priorities right. When there are so many cases of corruption in the country, OL has not even raised his voice once. I suspect that somehow if he does that, he will find more PDP supporters who are behind all these corrupt practices. In the second comment, “guardian” laments that no one seems to be doing any thing about the malaise spreading through our society:…

Lottery questions

December 1, 2010Government

During Question Hour yesterday, I asked the finance minister two straightforward questions: “What action has the Royal Government taken to investigate alleged violations by Bhutan’s lottery agent in India?” “What action has the Royal Government taken to investigate alleged violations in the manner the lottery agent was appointed and reappointed?” The finance minister’s reply was a long-winded narrative about the history of Bhutan lottery. And an elaborate recount of how the government selected their lottery agent, and how, later, reduced that agent’s contractual obligations. But the finance minister did not answer the question: has the government investigated the alleged…

Anticorruption (Amendment) Bill

November 12, 2010Legislature

One of the most important legislations that the National Assembly will debate during the sixth session is the Anticorruption (Amendment) Bill 2010. The National Council had resolved to amend the Anticorruption Act 2006 during its third session. And based on that, the Council’s Good Governance Committee and ACC officials carried out a review of the Act. The Act was revised to clarify and rationalize some of its provisions with other laws including the Penal Code of Bhutan and the Civil and Criminal Procedure Code of Bhutan. It was also revised to ensure compliance with the United Nations Convention Against…

Beware

February 7, 2010Media

The short entry about the appointment of Tenzin Rigden as the PM’s media advisor generated some long and heated discussions. Very good. But now what? First, the media must beware. By Tenzin Rigden’s own admission he has deep connections in the media: … here are the facts – worked in Kuensel for 10 years; started and ran BT for three years (yes, I still own 10% BT shares if there is any value at all now); the owner of Bhutan Today is my first cousin and its CEO my nephew; the editors of Business Bhutan are friends and former…

Allowing allowances

January 4, 2010Government, Legislature

Last month, when, at the end of the Parliament’s Fourth Session, the National Assembly approved salary increases for MPs, I had complained that: Parliament does not have the powers to consider or grant pay increases unilaterally. Instead, according to the Constitution, it’s the Pay Commission’s job to recommend increases in the salaries and allowances of public servants. And that includes us, politicians. Now we hear that the Cabinet has approved allowances (equal to 45% of their basic salaries) for “ACC investigators and related professionals”. The Prime Minister had, in fact, announced that ACC employees would be given allowances, but…

Anticorruption

December 9, 2009Government

Earlier this week, the Anticorruption Commission’s annual report to the Parliament was discussed. Members of National Assembly – including the PM, cabinet minters, ruling party MPs, the opposition and the Speaker – registered their support for this important organization, and reiterated their resolve to fight corruption. The ACC’s annual report, however, was silent on one issue. The report made no mention whatsoever of the recruitment of DPT party workers by the Government. About a year ago, I had informed ACC that the unilateral appointments of the DPT party workers may be unlawful, but have received no response so far.…

Supremacy of law

May 23, 2009Justice

Every now and then a reader will leave a comment that is completely unrelated to and has nothing to do with a topic being discussed. This is okay. After all, one should be allowed to raise important issues even though they are not being discussed here. So I try to acknowledge these out-of-the-blue comments. Deo recently made one such comment. This is what deo wrote in CDG unconstitutional: "OL, since you seem to have an opinion on everything, and has become a self-appointed legal expert, what is your take on the Jemina case? In your opinion, who is correct…

Supreme excuse

December 22, 2008Justice

Bhutan Observer, Bhutan Times and Kuensel are doing a pretty good job of keeping the controversy over the appointment of the Bhutan Post CEO alive. If it were not for them, the Cabinet’s tentative response to ACC’s investigation and report would have gone unquestioned, and the public would be none the wiser.But now what? Constitutional experts argue that only the Supreme Court, as the final authority on the interpretation of the Constitution, can decide if the cabinet’s action on the ACC’s report, or lack thereof, is unconstitutional. And that the differences between the ACC and the Cabinet cannot be…