Earn and Learn programme students seek further investigation

The representatives of the students who went to Japan under the Learn and Earn Programme and their parents are seeking further investigation into the programme by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

They approached the ACC on Monday.

In the letter submitted to the commission, the representatives said the earlier investigation had overlooked visa processing fees and airfares.

They claim the Bhutan Employment Overseas (BEO) had charged exorbitant visa processing fees and airfares.

In the letter addressed to the ACC Chairperson, the representatives said only the translation fee of Nu 7500 per student, which amounted to Nu 3.8M, was investigated in the earlier investigation.

The letter stated the ticketing was directly given to the Bhutan Tourism Corporation Limited.

They said the bids for airfare quotation should have invited from all ticketing agencies to get the cheapest flights.

The students said the BEO had told them that they got good discount on air ticket but it was not the case. They also say that, in fact, the airfare should have been fairly lower since many of them took transit flights.

The students also claimed that they ended up paying more tuition fees to the language schools in Japan compared to other foreign students. This part, they said, was also not investigated by the ACC in the earlier investigation.

The letter also states that the ACC missed the hiked visa processing charges levied by the BEO despite taking Nu 57,000 as agent fees.

Students were charged over Nu 6000 as visa processing fees, which the students claim is more than the actual charges and said it should be refunded.

The ACC forwarded the case to the OAG for prosecution in December last year.

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