The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) completed the reviewing of alleged deceptive practices and official misconduct case involving the chairperson of Monggar Dzongkhag Tshogdu along with two engineers and two private contractors.
The OAG is yet to receive the direction to forward the case in court.
According to the investigation report, the chairperson of Monggar Dzongkhag Tshogdu is allegedly charged with four various counts of deceptive practices and one count of official misconduct.
As per the OAG, the Thrizin is alleged to have falsely claimed a total amount of more than Nu 3.5 M from the government as machinery charges of farm road construction and maintenance works in Balam and Chhaling Gewogs during the fiscal year 2016-2017. He has allegedly used the registration numbers of a light vehicle and a two-wheeler claiming as machine registration numbers while claiming the working bills.
He is also charged for alleged abuse of function. The investigation report says the suspect had jointly prepared the working contract documents with one of the suspects in the case, where his wife, another suspect in the case actually did the works.
The OAG is also charging the dzongkhag site engineers for alleged official misconducts. The OAG states they have failed to verify the false claims while suspects claimed their payment by using other’s vehicle numbers in place of designated machine’s registration numbers. According to the OAG, it is required to deploy the excavator 200PC and above for the works. The report says the qualities of roads are poor and non-functional.
Likewise, the OAG is also charging the wife of Thrizin, a private contractor for alleged involvement in the case of deceptive practices. OAG decided five counts of probable charges against her. With this, another private contractor is also charged for aiding and abetting in the case.
The OAG will be charging the suspects for a petty misdemeanour, which has a minimum prison term of a month to one year. The court will be requested to direct the suspects to restitute the amounts acquired through deceptive practices.
Changa Dorji
