Dorji Wangmo and  Sonam Deki | Interns

The Department of Local Governance (DLG) launched the Community Contracting Protocol (CCP) 2021 and Gups’ Handbook yesterday at the Royal University of Bhutan premises.

CCP was first published in 2011, encouraging active participation of the public and it was updated in 2021 for easier implementation.

CCP is to enhance the capacity, resilience and responsibility of local communities where the protocols provide a faster and easier way of carrying out contracting works in the local government. At a broader, national level, community contracting is intended to create employment opportunities, especially for youths and to address rural-urban migration.




Department of Local Governance Program Officer Sangay Dorji said, “Many issues regarding the implementation of CCP were raised by local governments on the need for practical and uniform implementation of the protocol. So in consonance with decentralization policy and to improve the public service delivery, the department initiated the change of the protocol in 2021.”

The Gups’ Handbook is a reference for the gups, mangmis and tshogpas to understand local governance (LG), responsibilities of LG functionaries and effective ways of implementing the local development activities.

The handbook covers roles and responsibilities of the gup, planning and financial management functions, attributes of a good gup and others in simple and clear terms.




DLG Senior Program officer Sonam Tashi said, “It is the first handbook developed with close consultation with all relevant policies, Acts, Rules and Regulations, strategies and frameworks that are associated to gups’ functions  and implementation of development activities at the local level, especially in gewogs.”

Both books will be distributed to the elected and appointed LG functionaries on January 17.