During the ‘Petitions from the Local Government’ session today, an appeal to provide annual grants directly to the gewog’s account rather than Dzongkhag’s by the Member of Parliament (MP) of Panbang, Dorji Wangdi was not supported by most members of the National Assembly.
The budget appropriation for gewogs includes Small Development grants, Common Minimum Infrastructure budget, Flagship Programme fund and Gewog Development Grant.
“All programmes and planning activities are carried out by the Local Governments. When it comes to budget, It is kept either at Dzongkhag or with the government. It is inconvenient for the Local Government to work. So I request the government to consider this,” shared Dorji Wangdi, the Panbang MP.
However, Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said it is not possible due to lack of expertise and enough human resources at the gewogs.
“We have kept almost all the required expertise and human resources at the Dzongkhag level and not at gewogs. We don’t have enough of these resources in all 205 Gewogs. We don’t have engineers, planning officers and accountants to keep checks and balances. Due to these reasons, we have kept almost all the budget at the Dzongkhag level,” said Dr Lotay Tshering, the Prime Minister.
The government has allocated a total of Nu 50bn as a capital budget for Local Governments in the 12th Five Year Plan, an increase of 100 per cent from the last plan. The increase in the total capital budget for local governments, according to the government, is required for meeting the increasing demand for public services at the local level.
Tshering Dendup
