The Opposition says the Cabinet should be held accountable for willfully distorting information and misleading the nation by pretending to be unaware when they actually knew about the involvement of the secretaries on the ENERTIA issue.
In a news release from the Opposition today, the party said the Economic Affairs Minister on the 12th of December last year had vehemently denied any knowledge of the course of action taken by the Secretaries on the national TV. But, recent findings of the RCSC had established that the whole matter originated from the Economic Affairs Secretary, who had followed instructions of the Economic Affairs Minister’s inability to attend the conference organised by ENERTIA.
The RCSC revealed weaknesses in the working arrangements between the Cabinet and the Committee of Secretaries. In line with this, the Opposition says the Cabinet should be equally held responsible and accountable for the lapse in coordinating with the Committee of Secretaries.
The Opposition’s stand is the three Secretaries should be reinstated to their original posts.
The release also says the case merits the attention of the National Council as the apolitical house of review, and that they have the right to consider reviewing the cases of the Cabinet’s violation of the provisions of the constitution and the Civil Service Act.
The Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) had decided to reassign the three surrendered government secretaries.
Cabinet Secretary Dasho Penden Wangchuk, the Economic Affairs Secretary Dasho Sonam Tshering and the Foreign Secretary Yeshey Dorji were surrendered to RCSC in December last year. They were surrendered for taking a unilateral decision to write a letter to Government of India to resolve an issue on the allegations of corruption related to hydropower projects published by the Indian magazine called ENERTIA.
