The Bhutanese Leading the way.
A senior official with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told this paper that though a request for information and evidence for the Bhutan Lottery case was sent last year in around November 2012, the Bhutan government has not cooperated with the investigation.
The letters from CBI was directed to Bhutan through India’s Home Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs in October and November last year. The letters requested for details on the contracts between the Bhutan government and Santiago Martin. But, the government declined to respond to the letter, the CBI said.
The senior official involved in the investigation told this paper that the CBI investigation on Bhutan Lottery would be incomplete without the necessary information from the Bhutan government.
The officer told the paper, “The Bhutan government is a sovereign government, and so we have sent for a request for some information through our Ministry of External Affairs, but so far, we have got nothing. If there is no cooperation from the Bhutan government then nothing can be done.”
Meanwhile, Indian media outlets have quoted the CBI saying that they will seek the help of Interpol to investigate the infamous Bhutan Lottery scam, after letters from CBI requesting information from Bhutan government has failed to elicit any response.
Asianet News and other Indian media outlets reported that CBI has found that lottery king Santiago Martin has received full support from the Bhutan Lottery Directorate in his selling of illegal tickets, and dubious prize money distribution.
The Bhutan Lottery scam is a multi-billion dollar lottery scam that was uncovered by a series of investigative stories done in Business Bhutan. The period of the investigation by the paper stretched mainly from 2007 to 2010, and involved the Finance Ministry and Directorate of Lottery.
Apart from showing blatant corruption that involved Bhutanese officials, the investigation showed how Bhutan lost billions in potential revenue under highly dubious circumstances, and also how the lottery committee made a series of poor and even illegal decisions on Bhutan Lottery.
In order to verify the stories uncovered, the government ordered for an Audit Report (RAA) that was submitted to the Prime Minister in 2011.
The special RAA report on the Bhutan Lottery operations confirmed many of the media reports on the Bhutan Lottery scam.
The report confirmed irregularities in the operation of Bhutan Lottery which was worth Nu 263.6bn a year in 2007 alone, printing in illegal presses, billions in potential revenue lost by Bhutan, non-printing of prize money, changing the lottery agreement illegally by the incumbent DPT government to favor Martin and other illegalities.
The report also pointed to cases of unauthorized payments to Bhutan Lottery Directorate staff by Martin, illegal transfer of company ownership, under-reporting of actual value of Bhutan Lottery by lottery officials, etc.
The report says that Bhutan’s earlier arrangement with Jayantilal of 4% of the total turnover, if applied, on the current lottery business; it would have generated more revenue. This means that in 2007 with the turnover at Nu 263.6bn, Bhutan could have instead got Nu 10.544bn in revenue. The money could easily have solved Bhutan’s Rupee Crisis and more.
The RAA report confirmed that Martin had been skimming off billions every year in prize money of Bhutan Lottery tickets in India by keeping the prize money for himself. The prize money which was Nu 4.4bn in just three months of 2010, should have come to Bhutan as per the agreement signed with Martin.
The RAA found that in three of the CD accounts, huge deposits of cash amounting to Nu 185.5mn had been made in the accounts for minimum assured return, prize money, and security deposit. Those same accounts were also being used to make unauthorized payments to the staff of the Bhutan Lottery Directorate. The RAA found that money was going toward paying ‘draw charges’ to the judges, which according to RAA, was not authorized as lottery officials already get 20 to 30% salary allowance monthly, and a yearly two month bonus, making them better paid than highly paid corporate employees. In one instance, Nu 282,980 had been withdrawn and divided among the staff members. It was shown that Nu 3.36mn had been paid out in the last three years just from this one account.
It was also found that Bhutanese employees working for the Martin’s lottery agency in Bhutan and their relatives were among the prize winners of Bhutan Lottery. In fact, between 2008 and 2010, around 26 Bhutanese won Nu 107.58 mn worth of prizes. This was strange, as Bhutan Lottery ticket sales in Bhutan are miniscule in scale. RAA had recommended the investigation of these prize winners.
The RAA found that Bhutan had reduced the annual lottery license fee from Nu 470mn to Nu 210mn on false grounds. Bhutan’s Lottery Committee had reduced the amount on the grounds that Kerala operations were being shut, which actually did not happen. The RAA report said that the Bhutan Lottery Committee also faltered by not approaching the other bidders who had been willing to match Martin’s original offer. Bhutan also lost another Nu 73.012mn in three years, in additional revenue, as the draw charges for Bhutan Lottery were waived off. The RAA report says the revision of the important clauses in the agreements was totally in favour of the agent.
RAA has also stated that the transfer of the lottery agreement from Martin Lottery Agencies to Monica in March 2010 is not allowed as they were two different legal entities. The RAA says that the subsequent resignation of Martin and his wife from Monica and his letter in 2011 already absolved Martin of all legal responsibilities in operation of Bhutan Lotteries in India and showed mala fide intentions.
The report also criticized the Bhutan Lottery Directorate for doing poor research as their tender invitation in 2007 had estimated the total turnover of Bhutan lottery to be Nu 43bn and based on that, they expected a license fee of Nu 350mn a year. However, in 2007 the Bhutan lottery turnover was Nu 263.6bn or around 6 times the estimated turnover. This meant that Bhutan should have put a calculation of an annual license fee of minimum Nu 2.1bn as opposed to the accepted amount of Nu 210mn.
The RAA also noted several shortcomings in selection of Martin as a lottery agent with several allegations against Martin amongst other, which included several court cases in various Indian states for not fulfilling contractual cases, and his habit of reducing the offer once the contract is awarded. The Inter-Ministerial Lottery Committee awarded the tender accepting Martin’s explanation at face value and not giving the due diligence to the matter.
The RAA report also says that relaxation of rule of giving a six-month prize guarantee by the committee resulted in Bhutanese banks losing the opportunity of guaranteeing fees up to Nu 45.560bn a year and earning interests.
It is also pointed out that by not following the lottery law to print in the home state, the Bhutanese printing industry lost out on Nu 1.557bn worth of printing lottery tickets from April 2008 to 2010, a relatively easy job. Instead, the Lottery Directorate authorized Nu 13.7bn worth face value of lottery tickets in illegal presses in just a few months of 2010.
The RAA’s enquiries were also thwarted with the fact that the Lottery Directorate did not maintain records like detailed sales records, cash and bank records, details of unsold tickets, taxes, and draw charges paid, etc. RAA says due to such missing records and the incomplete records with the Lottery Directorate, the true state of lottery operations in India cannot surface.
The RAA report was, however, not shared with anyone except the Prime Minister, Finance Minister, and the Finance Secretary.
ACC was not provided with a copy, and copies were denied to the National Council and Opposition Party as well.
RAA’s then recommendations included the termination of the existing agreement with Martin, organizational reforms of the Directorate of lottery, ensuring proper conduct of lottery operations, studying the various option in managing Bhutan Lottery like, conducting market study, appointing multiple agents, printing of tickets in Bhutan, levying tax on lottery operations, further investigating of some issues, collaborating with state governments, and making sure that lottery agents deposit all security deposits, sales proceeds, and submit accounts for unsold tickets.
The current government in response, shut down lottery operations, but no Bhutanese officials were held accountable.
Tenzing Lamsang / Thimphu
Interpol should be alerted to arrest those people in bhutan who were involved. Or they should be arrested when they are outside the country as they travel frequently. They should be hanged in public.
I agree 100%
Disgusting news,if it is really true.
RAA seems to have not followed it’s own Act by not sharing the information with ACC and the parliament. RAA also seems to be politicized so the Auditor General should resign if he cannot perform his duties.
The RAA has not followed its own Audit Act by not sharing the information with ACC and the Parliament. Therefore the AG of RAA should resign if he cannot perform his duties.
I won’t believe half what this paper says, Interpol and CBI, load of crap.
I suspect bigger fishes are involved there. ACC it is next task la.
Silence means you have something to hide. Ex DPT ministers Yeshey Zimba and Wangdi Norbu who were finance ministers are definitely involved. Bhutan’s loss.
Vote PDP or Namrup and bring them to power open up case and fix these Bhutan mafia to jail.
The fig fish includes kingpin JYT, WN, YZ and some of finance Ministry official…. only way to get justice for gyalpoising, Pemagatshel Aunty, Lottery is throw DPT out of power….
Haha, to bring the PDP and DNT to power, people will vote for them, which I don’t see happening.
I meant people will have to vote for them, which I don’t see happening.
you know the case and you are still supporting corrupted DPT. You belong to the crap too
You mean the lottery case, none of us really know what happened and even more importantly no one knows the reason for the Governments stand on this. Who knows where this scandal may lead to, maybe revealing the truth could be very embarrassing for the country as a whole, so in all fairness, the RGOB may have a very strong reason not to take up this issue any further. At the same time, it is very likely that some powerful political figures in India are involved too, so pursuing this case may only lead to a strained relationship between our two countries, which would be fatal for our country.
For a country like our’s which is suffering from a severe rupee crunch, why would the government of the day close the lottery business and deprive themselves of so much funds in INR, no ruling party would be foolish enough to do such a thing. This then points to the fact that the RGOB is treading cautiously on this issue.
Hope in 2023, DNT or PDP will come to power! I dont see happening before that!
Closing down the Lottery Business in the pretext of bad image for the country by the DPT government is like “burning down your own house to get rid of the rats”. Yes it could have easily solved half the Rupee crisis. It had the potential to earn millions even billions in Rupees. Definitely big fishes are involved here and they need to be brought to task some how or the other.
Do nt dig dried stool ya. It will smell. U know wen was Bhutan Lotery started? Talk something that happened after 2008. If cruption ws ther in BL then it was started before 2008. This govt. Did only gud by stoping it. I had faith in u, now m doubting ur intention. Talk something like giving KIDU to ugyen Wangchhu. Then it is with clear intention. Otherwwise???
Hello Me,
When were you born la?Since you mentioned BL started before 2008 I would like to put you a question la.Who was ruling the government before the year 2008?Please you will need to take a history lesson if you don’t know this answer. Thank you.
I cannot forgive DPT for this great opportunity lost because of their misdeeds. In most other countries lottery businesses are the best business for any state. It is profitable and very successful business if administered properly. It has the potential to bring billions of Rs to our country. Because of the kindness and support of Govt of India and people of India, we were given a huge opportunity to access 1 billion Indian market. We had only captured few states in the south where our lottery was very successful. Imaging, it could have proliferated into other States of India in the future. Such opportunity was lost because of these DPt govt.
We are Budhist country thus gambling is sin according to our religion. Loto is higher degree gambling!
There goes another conservative fool and a DPT sycophant. These people will go to any length to protect their masters’ wrong deeds. They have to be stoned at public.
you may rot in hell !
Democratic election itself is a game and so why categorise game of lottery.
Worst case scenario. Look at their boldness, but shameless act, they can’t sweep under the carpet just like that. It has to come out for the good cause to save our country from this shameless prado tshogpa.
i agree
As I have been mentioning right from the beginning that if we really talk of corruption scam than there is no bigger scam than this Bhutan Lottery Scam. Gyelpozhing is not at all a case to reckon with which had happened more than a decade back. This scam is the very scam that had surfaced during the reign of the incumbent govt. The Govt. chose to close down the lottery operations rather than fixing the peoples involved in massive corruption practices because everybody at the higher ups level were involved. The govt. could have at least investigated the case through ACC and brought the culprits to books as was recommended by the RAA as per their findings. Yes, we know this operation was in joint collaboration with Indian national operator but bhutanese counter officials working at the Directorate of Lottery could have been punished which did not happen. So it is evident that the Govt did not want their serving ministers to be implicated and that’s why the RAA report is still a shut case. We could have atleast expected the Govt to initiate overhauling of the lottery operations first weeding out the officials involved and a fresh lease renewed. If that was done we could have tied the current rupee crisis to some extent. So it is not only the Finance Ministry but also the inter-ministerial committee members should be made accountable besides those key officials at Ministersecretary level ranging from Yeshey Zimba to Wangdi Norbu and Bab Kesang and Nima Wangdi the then Head of Depts under whose administrative jurisdiction the Head of Lottery was functioning. Despite of such corruptive practices at the highest degree yet the Director of the Lottery was allowed to serve with dignity till he had only one month away from his supernuation where as we have seen some senior officials having lost their job with no justification of any wrongdoings in 2007 because of yet another failure on the part of RCSC secretary who again happened to be Bap Kesang.
It is unfair to blame DPT on this issue but that doesn’t mean that the issue should be swept under the carpet. There needs to be a thorough investigation of those involved in it and culprits should be penalized for their crime.Which ever party comes to power should bring them out in public…Doesn’t matter how bad the stool smells, needs to dig it so that next time people do not indulge in shit business.
PDP is a pro-vested interest party of Bhutan. If PDP wins this country will become further worse. PDP candidates are also part of lottery scam……………..you will be surprised later!
Unless this lottery scam is made public let us not vote for DPT then.
all involved-its a big nexus…corrupt bastards….