Confident that the government’s decision to remove the foreign minister will have a positive impact on the efforts to root out corruption in the country, the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa stated in a press release yesterday that it welcomes the move.

“Any form of corruption is an impediment to the nation’s progress, particularly, political corruption at the highest level of the government can be detrimental to the health of Bhutan’s young democracy,” the press release stated.

On July 21, a press release from the Prime Minister’s office stated that Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay has proposed Bongo-Chapcha constituency’s representative Dawa Gyaltshen as the home minister and home minister Damcho Dorji to be transferred as the foreign minister. The press release stated that in accordance with Article 17, section 3 of the Constitution, the Prime Minister submitted the recommendation to His Majesty The King on July 20.

However, DNT urged the government to do much more to combat corruption and has asked why such a decision wasn’t taken sooner. The press release stated that if the recent decision was an action on high moral ground, why then was the foreign minister in the first place nominated as a candidate and then as a minister.

“This contradictory decision is a demonstration of the weakness of the executive and poor judgment of its leaders,” the press release stated.

“DNT hopes that the government will now review several of its past decisions such as the controversial and illegal existence of BOIC as pointed out by the National Council and the unfair promotion of electric cars as reported by ACC,” the press release stated. “These and others have disregarded the rule of law and also violated the provisions of the sacred Constitution.”