DPT says it had no role in BHEL commission issue

In response to an article by The Bhutanese on a 1.5% commission deal made in 2010 amounting to Nu 240 mn for Bhutan Ventures Trading (BVT) owned by Sangay Wangchuk, the Opposition party Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) said it had no role in the issue.

This was issued through a release by DPT on its facebook page on October 7th 2014.

According to a September 2010 letter signed by Sangay Wangchuk a 1.5% commission was agreed to for the total value of the BHEL order for Punatsangchu II and Mangdechu.

The P II tender worth Nu 9.50 bn awarded as a monopoly contract in 2012 while the Mangdechu tender worth Nu 6.94 bn was also awarded as a monopoly contract in January 2013.

BHEL became the monopoly supplier after other Indian companies were declared technically incompetent on technical grounds by the respective authorities of P II and MHPA.

Though The Bhutanese article never mentioned or implicated DPT either as a receiver or beneficiary of the commission the DPT in its release said, “In the wake of a scathing story run by the The Bhutanese Newspaper on Dasho Sangay Wangchuk and BHEL company of India, implicating DPT in the midst, We are compelled to issue the following clarification.”

The DPT said that any contractual transaction or otherwise between Dasho Sangay Wangchuk and the BHEL company of India for any kind of purposes have nothing to do with the previous government.

Though The Bhutanese had also not assigned any role to DPT in the commission transaction the DPT release said, “We fail to see the role of DPT in the supposed illegal transaction between Dasho Sangay Wangchuk and BHEL.”

Accusing the paper instead the DPT release said, “Therefore, the reference of DPT in this equation is nothing less than a deliberate ploy and a smear campaign by The Bhutanese Newspaper to defame and slander the image and reputationof the DPT.”