Travelling abroad for Short-Term Trainings has incurred a huge impact on public resources. This is as per the Performance Audit Report on Ex-country travels in the 2018-19 Financial Year. The civil servants preferred going abroad even for courses that were offered by the institutes in the country.
The review was carried out in ten ministries, Gross National Happiness Commission and National Environment Commission. Nearly 3000 officials attended short term training in 81 countries. And more than 70 officials from these agencies traveled as many as five to fourteen times. It is the officials in the EX level position who traveled abroad the most for Short-Term Training. According to the report, an official in EX level position from the economic affairs ministry traveled 14 times for Short-Term Training in financial year 2018-2019.
The report say there is no reason why local institutions are not preferred when there are huge differences in overall cost.
The Short-Term Trainings cost some Nu 350 M of which nearly Nu 83 M was funded by the government. The cost includes DSA, airfare and course fees among others.
Moreover, while travelling to the US, Europe and Canada, the agencies do not undertake the most direct and economical route. The report shows that the civil servants traveled via Bangkok although the route via Delhi is shorter.
As per the report, of the 137 trips to the US, Europe and Canada, more than half of the trips were made via Bangkok.
The report highlighted that agencies have not explored online learning resources for wider reach and cost-effectiveness.
Tshering Zam
