Observing anticorruption day

December 11, 2011Posted inGeneral17 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,…

Lottery issues

September 1, 2011Posted inGovernment20 Comments
Last year, on 29th September, I wrote that media reports about Bhutan’s role in the Indian lottery scam screamed for answers. On 11th October 2010, I wrote that the government needed to answer certain pressing questions regarding its dealings with Bhutan’s lottery agent in India. On 14th November 2010, I suggested that, instead of pulling out of the lottery business, the government should use lottery proceeds to fund public service broadcasting. On 30th November 2010, during the National Assembly’s question hour, I asked the Finance Minister to explain what the government had done to investigate the alleged violations in…

Lottery questions

December 1, 2010Posted inGovernment
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…

Funding BBS

November 14, 2010Posted inMedia
The Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy and the BBS recently got together last week to organize a seminar on the nature and role of public service broadcasting in Bhutan. The two-day seminar, which was meant to discuss public service media and broadcasting in general, generated a good deal of attention on the way BBS is organized and run. Such scrutiny is good for BBS’s health. In fact, it is vital, especially if the Kingdom’s oldest and main broadcaster is to achieve its vision of becoming “A trusted public service broadcaster of international standing …” The BBS was delinked…