There is a need to enhance the HR capacity of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) so that it can now onwards implement court judgments on irregularity cases. This was recommended by the parliament’s Public Accounts Committee today who shared that there are still 86 audit irregularity cases yet to be taken action on after court judgments between 2010 and 2024. Various offices and agencies were found to have been unable to take action for years in implementing the judgments even after the courts had passed them.
The recommendation from the committee is in line with the Royal Audit Authority’s recommendation on the need to expedite the enforcement of court verdicts on audit irregularities.
Cases of audit irregularities that could not be resolved through established normal procedures are usually settled through court. With a significant number of cases pending settlement even after court verdicts, the Royal Audit Authority says this is due to the inaction of relevant agencies in initiating enforcement of the court verdicts.
The members of parliament agreed that the judgment implementation be taken care of by the OAG.
“The judgment is passed by the court and the implementation is supposed to be done by the relevant agencies. But what is inconvenient right now is there is not enough human resources. If a judgment is to be examined in agencies and ministries, it should be done by legal officers and there are not enough legal officers. Moreover, offices have their responsibilities and work,” said Pema Chewang, Opposition Leader.
“The recommendation says there is a need to expedite the enforcement of court verdicts on the audit irregularities prosecuted by the respective agencies to uphold the rule of law and dispense justice. If a solution is not given to that agency, this problem will continue to exist,” said Sangay Dorji, chairperson of the National Council.
The committee also recommended the government collaborate with the OAG to expedite the enforcement of judgments for 86 pending cases and share their status with the committee by the end of March next year.
The recommendation to implement the judgments by the OAG was adopted in the joint sitting today with a show of hands.
Samten Dolkar
Edited by Kipchu
