The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) has received an official complaint from the people of Khaling gewog, which accused its former gup of misappropriating the gewog’s development funds.
The complaint letter accuses the gup of embezzling about Nu 80,000 from the total of Nu.0.6 mn allocated for irrigation work at Jeri under Khaling gewog.
“The gup has done this by keeping a record of two months master roll payment to the people when the actual days worked by the people were only one month and three days. “The difference in the number of working days was misrepresented,” the letter states.
In another allegation, the letter states that the gup embezzled Nu 25,000 received as compensation for the mishap of gewog power tiller, which was on lease.
The Nu 25,000 along with the money received by the gewog for hiring of power tiller before leasing was not shown in any accounts. Upon investigation, the fund was found deposited in a joint account of three individuals, which was not under the purview of the gewog office.
The gup is also accused of taking bribes from a contractor based at Khaling who cleared the Jeri Lemi farm road, which was poorly constructed.
According to the letter, the Earnest Money Deposit deposited with the Gewog Office amounted to Nu.1,400,000 was supposed to be kept for the period of a year as the Liability Period to ensure the contractors do not compromise work quality.
However, the gup has been accused of handing over the money to the contractor before the expiry of the liability period.
“The Gup had his share from the EMD released to the contractor and such practices by local leaders are not acceptable,” states the letter.
The gup is also accused of encouraging people to buy Jersey cows for a group of people at Barshong, who call themselves the Barshong Group, of which the Gup is also a member.
“Buying jersey and taking it individually is not called group,” states the letter. “This is purely unethical on Gup’s part for supporting those who supported him.”
The former Khaling Gup , Tashi Dorji said that his statement on these issues was presented to the officials from the Royal Audit Authority and Anti- Corruption Commission.
“Accusation booked against me are unsubstantiated and are incorrect” the Gup said. The Gup declined to comment further. Meanwhile the case is still under investigation.
