According to the procurement rules and regulations, an engineer or a gup is a member of the dzongkhag and gewog tender committees. But in some districts, this is not happening. The National Assembly discussed the issue and said the dzongkhag tender committee should include gewogs for better developmental activities in the gewogs. This was one of the recommendations of the Economic and Finance Committee after reviewing the budget for the financial year 2021-2022.
The road sector has been allocated nearly Nu 6bn. Of that, more than Nu 1bn is for the ongoing improvement of farm roads. The recommendation said the dzongkhag tender committee needs to include gewogs for improvements of farm road to monitor the works effectively.
“Gewog officials need to be involved in the review of the condition of a farm road but since they are not involved in the tender works, they don’t have a say on the matter. And when they don’t have any rights on the matter, the gewog thinks the dzongkhag will review the matter and that is when the quality of roads is compromised after spending a lot of money,” said Kinley Wangchuk, the chairperson of the Economic and Finance Committee.
And some of the local leaders we spoke to welcome the initiative.
“It is really important to have one representative from the gewog in the dzongkhag tender committee. Since we live in the gewog it is convenient for us to monitor the works than the dzongkhag,” said Chabi Kumar Rai, the Patshaling Gup of Tsirang.
“Earlier we the gup used to be called for the works related to tender as it was easier for us. We know more about the developmental works, required budget, and all the places in our respective gewogs. But due to the current situation, we were not called in the recent tender meetings,” added Chencho Gyeltshen, the Sharpa Gup of Paro.
“The dzongkhag has the authority over the common minimum infrastructure budget. So, when we have to immediately carry out some small works, it is a problem,” added Ram Bahadur Karki, the Gosarling Gup from Tsirang.
The Works and Human Settlement Minister, Dorji Tshering, said according to the procurement rules and regulations, an engineer or a gup are members of the dzongkhag and gewog tender committees.
“The chairperson of the dzongkhag tender committee is the Dzongda of respective districts. Likewise, the gup and mangmi should also participate in the dzongkhag and gewog tender committees. And district engineers should also be involved. That’s why the gup or an engineer should take part in both dzongkhag and gewog tender committees,” Lyonpo said.
Today, 35 of the 205 farm roads have been maintained.
Karma Wangdi
