…on grounds of alleged corrupt practices

Suspension: The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) on December 28 has written to the governor of Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) to suspend its deputy governor Eden Dema from her service for the alleged corrupt practices.

The commission was investigating into the allegation of misuse of donor funds. An ACC official said that the commission has written a letter to suspend her and to expedite its investigation.

Eden Dema was alleged to have deposited donor funds, which were meant to implement projects under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank, into her personal account. The money should have been deposited into the government account. These projects were reportedly handled by Eden Dema as project manager.

The other allegation against the deputy governor was tampering and manipulation of email correspondence to avail 100 percent Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) while attending a conference in Japan. She reportedly tampered and manipulated an invitation letter and claimed USD 600 as full DSA although the organizer bore full expenses including travel, food and accommodation.

As per the existing rules, she was entitled to only 20 percent DSA.

This particular issue was one of the main findings of a 2013 Royal Audit Authority report, which was shared with ACC.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during the sixth session of the Parliament last month while presenting the audit report highlighted that manipulation and tampering of document resulting to inadmissible payment by one of the deputy governors of RMA was a serious concern. The committee recommended that such a high profile case require immediate attention of the ACC for investigation.

 Rinzin Wangchuk

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