ACC to review Trowa Theater case

ACC committee to check if Trowa case has an element of corruption to merit an investigation

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said it will review the Trowa Theater case. A formal resolution calling for an ACC investigation into the Trowa Case will be forwarded by the National Council (NC) to the ACC within the next two weeks.

The need for an actual investigation will be decided only after the review of the NC’s formal complaint by the complainant management committee of the ACC.

“Whether the ACC will take the case up will entirely depend on the commission’s decision, meaning that the case will be first reviewed by the commission then only it will be decided,” said an ACC legal officer, who did not want to be named.

According to ACC officials the committee will see if the Trowa theater case has any element of corruption. The element of corruption here would be defined not only with exchange of money but also abuse of power and willful violation of laws to favor certain individuals or groups.

The legal officer of the ACC said the NC resolution will be received as per Section 25 (f) of the ACC Act 2011, where they can review complaints lodged by any person or authority. In the case of Trowa, ACC was accepting the Parliament’s authority.

The legal officer said the ACC followed a normal procedure in accordance to the Chapter 6 of the ACC Act 2011. The case will first go to the complainant management committee which will recommend whether to pursue the case or not.

The next step will be to forward the case to the actual commission, who will then make the final decision, based on the complaint management committee’s recommendations.

In regard to the offence, the legal officer said if it was against the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement (MoWHS)  then it was likely to fall under the category of abuse of function.

Trashigang NC and also the Deputy Chairperson, Dr. Sonam Kinga said once a case has been forwarded to the ACC, it has to follow due-process-of verification, acceptance and investigation of the case in compliance with the ACC Act and rules.

Dr. Sonam Kinga said NC was confident that the Trowa case will not only qualify as a policy corruption of which the ACC is very concerned but will also expedite the investigation, “this is because most of the evidence and necessary information are already collected by the Public Accounts Committee”.

The houses of review recommended an early intervention into the ACC’s probe on the case and provide a report before the 10th  session of parliament since the issue qualifies as policy corruption based on the findings.

“It will take around two weeks as the House Committee will go through all the resolutions. They will make sure the resolutions are in line with he NC-decision and then on the same day it will be sent to the different agencies like the ACC,” said Gasa NC MP Sangay Khandu.

Earlier the NC had passed a resolution which stated that the Trowa Theater land case qualified as ‘policy corruption’.

It was based on three findings:SS

The first reason was that the MoWHS proposed to sell the land by violating the Land Act 2007 and disregarding a standing resolution of parliament.

The second reason was writing or requesting the owner of Trowa theater to sign the lease agreement without any statement of consequences.

The third was allowing the issue to prolong for more than six years during which the owner was permitted to operate a business entity on government land without collecting any rental dues.

The Bumthang NC MP, Tshewang Jurmi said it was a unanimous decision to put up this recommendation because it was found that this was policy corruption. He said “the ACC should agree to investigate as it is their duty”.

The upper house has asked the ministry to provide an explanation as to why it ignored a standing resolution of parliament.

The NC also called for the government to fix accountability on all responsible officials.

The MoWHS minister, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba declined to comment on the NC’s move.

He however said, “It is good that they (ACC) are doing their job”.

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17 comments

  1. well,
     it is just few skeletons that are coming out of closet.  I am sure there are 100s more.
    The rumor is floating around, that the trowa theater is owned by Riverview fellow. The link I heard, he is related to PM (seems one of his son is married to PM’s daughter).
    Hmmmm, So idea is make the rich, richer. Or could it be that he gifted this govt land as his dowry for his daughter to Riverview guy.
    I went to that theater few times I promised now I’ll never ever go or step into that house & I’ll tell as many people as possible not to go in. 
    These rich people are playing musical chair & doing all the corrupt things  n funny thing is they still get out of it without any trouble. Whereas simple teachers were terminated for misuse of few thousands. By going that scale this govt should have resigned 10000 times. Or may be PM’s pocket was filled in with dollars by this trowa guy to keep his mouth mum…Yet he talks of Tsa wa sum… 
    Otherwise how can they keep this fact from public about govt’s inability to get monthly rent for last 5 or 6 yrs. This is height of incompetence or corruption in collusion. Now suddenly want to sell, Hope Yeshey Zimba, I thought he is one of the cleanest leader , hope he is not involved. We need  at least 1 or 2 clean leader so that people won’t lose hope on democracy. 

  2. You are hoping that Yeshey Zimba is clean. Do little bit of research on how he is constructing 5 Star Hotel on Old BDFC plot.

    • oh yes, i remember BDFC used to be in that area? What happened? How did LYZ get that land?

      • For the sake of healthy debate, please don’t go viral with your comments, that too without any basis. I understand that the two of you may have your reasons for hating LYZ and while I am certainly not a fan of his, at least in this case, he has done nothing wrong. If the two of you were not so keen to belittle him, a little bit of research would have told you that the BDFC office was operating out of LYZs building, at the exact site where his hotel is coming up.

      • 2 posts doesn’t make anything ‘viral’ so stop overreacting. You don’t ‘hate’ LYZ you seem to love him the way you jump to his defense and know so much about him.

        You could be right that the BDFC was operating out of his building. Hmmm…let me see, BDFC used to be under Finance Ministry and LYZ used to be Finance Minister and Secretary for donkey’s years…I think I am seeing some picture…can you see the picture?

        so many questions emerge so easily with this guy. 

        • Haha, now if you had accused him of using his powers as the then Finance Minister to make BDFC rent his building to house their offices, than I would agree with you, however, it must also be noted that there are so many other such similar cases. Now at least admit that you are wrong instead of becoming defensive.

        • i already admitted it and I am not being defensive. 

  3. That’s how the mighty and the powerful will work. Keep watching. The Trowa case is yet another typical case of how the rich and the influential individuals make their living i.e., cheating on the people and the government.

    ACC will get nowhere to get its justice done here because the fish here is too big to be caught in its net.

  4. The fact that the owner could carry out his business on Government land without paying rent fo last five years, shows that the Government officials including LYZ are scared of this guy. His sons are married to a princess and JYT’s daughter. I wouldn’t like to mess up with someone  who has high reach either.  Can’t blame LYZ.

    • you don’t have to blame him. Just don’t vote this incompetent jerk in again in 2013. What’s there to be scared about.

    • ….and make space for some one with some balls to challenge the riverview mafia.

  5. Just as the youth center/ harmonious village stands at someones land today- to become someones real estate in future, same has happened with RICBL office. When it began on late 1970 the office was built on government land, later the land transaction was made in favor of the current owner. The buildings paid lease rent for few years after which even the buildings were transferred to his name and BDFCL started paying rents. In 2003/4 the BDFCL was shifted to another place and private households started staying there.
    I am not a monk: i want the other monk to understand this, there are many cases of legelized theft of government land: further what ammount of money do you think is involved in erecting such huge structure the money he lawfully gains is far less than what the structure needs. Dont forget he has land in Gyelpoizhing, he is from lower Thimphu.

    • Anyway, you seem to have a lost screw in your head, we are talking about LYZs building which was already his building which was rented out to BDFC. I don’t know anything about the other story pertaining to RICBL you seem to be talking about..  In regard to erecting such a big structure, why don’t you find out since you seem to be the one complaining about it. As for Gyelposhing, it is being investigated, why can’t you get this into your thick nut.

  6. Sunday Worker

    Yes the monk, sure come forward and point out all such cases as this is collective responsibility of all those who are not corrupt. I share with you a case, a man whose father died could not inherit his land, the authority accused him of attempting a conspiracy. Later i know the land is registered under one of the court personnel. I asked the person about the procedure of such larceny and he threatened me using the kings name. ‘If you go against my will, you know king appointed me, you are going against the king’ he said. Sadly many people are less bothered about such cases, letting such rampant things happen will reap Bhutan a last ‘hungry-la’, our future is grave if we arent doing something to stop these practices.

  7. Bhutan is looking for some kind of a serious problem if the rich business people and elected leaders/people in power are selfish/greedy and do not know how to manage the nation’s precious resources as per the laws/Rules of the land. In the land of GNH- please find out why the people of Denmark are the happiest people in the world, please study their model and find out why they are happier than we Bhutanese who actually promotes the philosophy of GNH.
    For a truly GNH society, one cannot twist the national Laws/Rules as they wish to be. Simple fact – it is too late to fool and cheat the citizens of this nation, enough is enough. Please focus on reducing the gap between rich and poor through the genuine and long-term goals and create an enabling environment which could benefit all of us and flourish our beautiful nation. These few business people have no limit and these are the ones who will cause a damage that will have a huge long-term implication, perhaps difficult to correct it if not checked from the beginning. These few rich people have their needs like drinking salty water, as they drink more, they are thirstier and they like to keep on drinking to quench their thirst at the expense of the nation’s resources.
    We are a small nation and let us be sensitive to the needs of all our people instead of corrupt policies and making deals amongst the well connected parents through marriages of sons and daughters- please be sensitive to this factor: the citizens are well aware of this across the country. Do not try our people to lose their hope and faith in the system!.
    Our request to this Ruling Govt do some studies on these:
    (1) Why Denmark is the happiest country in the world, why not Bhutan?
    (2) Why New Zealand is the least corrupt in the world, why not Bhutan?

    The tax has to be collected and also the penalty as per the norms prescribed by the Royal Audit Authority. Ruling Govt.- please think of the long-term interest of the nation and the citizens.
    Please collect the tax immediately and the responsible officials be brought to the task including termination and prosecution for colluding, aiding, abetting and compromising the official duties. Both the official and the business man who failed to pay the tax have to be prosecuted to show the example to the people of the country that even the influential and rich business man is not spared by the system of the country.

  8. Too big to touch.Even if the govt take action due to public pressure, it’ll be another eye wash.We all know that for sure now. It’s a corruption in collusion. What else can we expect from these group of power monger & corrupt leaders. Sad!!!!!

  9. Leasing of any urban government land to private individiuals excepting for institunal purposes tantamount to conflict of interest. This should be completely stopped and those land which had been already leased out and came up with permanent structure,the lease rate should be revised and in case of not abiding with terms of lease and rate of rent, the lease so given earlier should not be renewed. People in authority should not play around with the resouces which belong to the people of BhutN.

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