The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Good Governance Committee presented a review report on the Annual Anti-Corruption Commission Report 2019 on Tuesday. The Report consisted of the Commission’s policy priorities; performance of the ACC; Bhutan’s ranking on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI); follow-up on National Council’s recommendation; and issues for deliberation.
The Committee reported that the ACC received a total of 396 complaints during the reporting year of 2019.
According to the report, abuse of function was alleged to be the major corruption offence constituting 174 complaints (43.9 %) followed by allegations of embezzlement with 16 complaints (4.04%).
The highest number of complaints was against the Local Government followed by Ministries. Out of 396 complaints, 25 qualified for investigation, 48 for information enrichment, 113 for administrative action and 77 for sensitization and 133 were dropped.
The Committee also reported that Bhutan has maintained its 25th rank on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI) with a score of 68. Likewise, Bhutan has maintained its 6th position in the Asia- Pacific region and stands as the cleanest country in the SAARC region.
In the meantime, National Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted eight recommendations as proposed by the Good Governance Committee on the Annual Anti-Corruption Commission Report 2019.
The eight recommendations included set clear criteria for selection of gewogs/agencies to conduct advocacy sessions based on their immeiate need, conduct periodic impact assessment of the advocacy programmes on the behavioral changes of the target group and upscale the awareness programme on electoral corruptions ahead of the third Local Government elections.
It also asked to establish an effective follow-up system on the Action Taken Report, accord equal emphasis on proactive measures by identifying agencies/individuals with high risk of corruption and making timely interventions and reconcile any contradictory findings of two or more reports published by the ACC (for example, National Integrity Assessment 2019 indicates outstanding rating for Local Government while the corruption complaints received against LGs as per the annual reports reflect the highest).
NC recommended ACC liaise with the Royal Civil Service Commission to establish a separate security unit within the Commission and enhance the coordination between the Anti Corruption Commission and Office of Attorney General to solve corruption cases in an amicable manner.
The recommendations will be forwarded to the ACC for due follow-up and implementation.
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