Staff Reporter

Thimphu Dzongkhag Court has issued a restraining order to State Trading Corporation of Bhutan Limited (STCBL) to delay the appointment of its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

This comes after the former CEO Kuenga Namgay took STCBL’s board of directors to court last month contesting its decision to fire him on sexual harassment allegation. The board in May compulsorily retired the CEO.

The board chairman Karma Yeshey confirmed on receiving a restraining order from the court and said that the board has decided to abide by the order. “We have not yet selected any candidate for the CEO. We were following the process for the selection.”

The court has asked the board to wait until the court procedure was complete.

The vacancy for CEO was announced in June with the service for three years on contract.

A restraining order is an order used by a court to protect a person, business, company, state, or entity, in a situation involving alleged cases including sexual harassment and not to carry out the activity.

Following a complaint from the female employees to the office where it was alleged that the former CEO had harassed them through a short message service (SMS), the board advised the company’s management committee to let the CEO retire compulsorily with benefits.

Kuensel learnt that the former CEO has appealed to dzongkhag court for not following due process in terminating him.

It was learnt that the sexual harassment case was a criminal offence and it should have followed due process where the court should convict the person and that board members did not have authority to decide in a criminal case.

With the first court hearing completed, the STCBL will rebut tomorrow.