EDITORIAL

Finally, it is the turn of politicians to take part in the larger national reforms, and quite a few of them are already complaining loudly. The ECB’s rule mandating that political parties must reveal the source of financing for their promises is a welcome rule. This is especially in the …

In June 2021 the National Assembly was forced to amend the Tobacco Act to allow the legal import and sale of tobacco to reduce the smuggling that was happening at the time. At the time, the main fear was that this smuggling will bring in COVID-19 since Bhutan’s strategy at …

It is good and timely that the Indian Power Secretary will be soon coming to Bhutan to review hydropower cooperation with focus on the 600 MW Kholongchu project, and the 10,000 MW by 2020 agreement. In 2006 Bhutan and India signed the ‘Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Hydropower’ …

The Thimphu Thromde has come up with a rash of heavy fines over the last two weeks for everything from parking on the footpath to the wrong colour of the roof. The fines are not the typical Nu 500 or Nu 1,000 but Nu 5,000 to Nu 50,000. These fines …

There are four poisons or problems choking the civil service that need to be rectified by the RCSC and the reform team under it. The first problem starts at the recruitment level where the process is unscientific, outdated and unable to screen people who are fit for the job or …

In the first meeting between the government, private sector and Financial Institutions chaired by the Prime Minister, the RMA Governor was absent though a team was there. The issues raised were mainly around the monetary measures phase four. In the second follow up meeting chaired by the Finance Minister the …

Overall, the Rules for Administrative Disciplinary Actions (RADA) for civil servants is an important reform. While it is largely drawn from the Code of Conduct of the Bhutan Civil Service Rules (BCSR), the BCSR did not spell out specific penalties. As a result, there was no uniformity in the action …

Usually the Ruling Party, Opposition Party and the National Council can be trusted to have three different views on the same issue, but this was not the case when it came to discussions on the Civil Society Organizations Amendment Bill in the last two sessions. There were concerns raised on …

There is an old adage that barking dogs seldom bite, but this saying may not hold in Bhutan where statistics show close to 7,000 bites in a year which means every year one in every 100 Bhutanese gets bitten. The issue of dog attacks in Bhutan are caused by two …

One common opinion in the past about the impact of any global financial crisis or economic recession is that it will not impact Bhutan much given the closed nature of our economy, and how we are not a part of the global supply chain. This view even holds today among …