The National Assembly directed the Good Governance Committee to revisit five recommendations from today’s deliberation on the Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Bill. This was following some errors in the recommendations regarding the penal provision. The Good Governance Committee presented 53 recommendations on the Bill.
In the Anti-Corruption Act 2011, most of the penal provisions are classified as a misdemeanour or value-based sentencing, whichever is higher subject to a maximum of the felony of the second degree if the value or the amounts involved in the crime exceed the total amount of minimum wage for 35 years or more at the time of the crime.
And the Good Governance Committee recommended having the section as “an offence under this section shall be a misdemeanour or value-based sentencing, whichever is higher.”
“There are 27 sections regarding the penal provision. All the sections are similar. If one of the sections is endorsed, then it is like all the sections are passed,” said Ugyen Dorji, the chairperson of the Good Governance Committee.
However, the Opposition Leader pointed out that there are few errors in the five sections of the recommendations regarding the penal provision.
“Some are stated as a petty misdemeanour or value-based sentencing and some as a misdemeanour or value-based sentencing. And some as a fourth-degree felony or value-based sentencing. However, the committee has written it all as a misdemeanour or value-based sentencing in the recommendations,” said Opposition Leader Dorji Wangdi.
“Our committee made mistake by writing misdemeanour or value-based sentencing. We should keep the penal provisions like in the Act. We just recommend removing the last part of the sentence and not changing the provision,” said Ugyen Wangdi, a member of the Good Governance Committee.
The committee will revisit the recommendations and present them tomorrow. And the deliberation on the Bill will also continue tomorrow.
The Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Bill was introduced for amendment last year. However, the third reading of the Bill was referred to this session due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pema Seldon Tshering/Kinley Dem/Tshering Zam
