Sitting fee contention
4 December 2009
Most MPs say that the sitting fees for the board of directors of Druk Holding and Investments (DHI) and its companies are too high.
Health Minister Zangley Dukpa said that, while the principles and objectives of DHI are good as conceived by His Majesty, it cannot afford to have big gaps in salaries and other benefits considering that Bhutan is still an aid-driven country.
He said other companies look up to DHI to set benchmarks, and the DHI benchmarks will only make them demand as high as DHI. He said that being the custodian of the national resources, DHI should be more prudent and judicious in resource use. “DHI’s salaries, perks and remunerations need to be reviewed,” he said.
“This is a concern as a politician taking into account the overall situation of the country,” he said, adding that it is a question of affordability.
Agriculture Minister Dr Pema Gyamtsho said there were a lot of discrepancies in salaries and benefits. “There shouldn’t be any allowance because we are paid for doing our job,” he said, adding that he was not in favour of any sort of allowance.
The DHI board members are paid Nu 15,000 a sitting while its companies pay between Nu 7,000 and 10,000, except for State Trading Corporation of Bhutan (STCB) which pays Nu 5,000 a sitting.
The government agencies and corporations pay between Nu 3,000 and 5,000 a sitting. The Finance Ministry had recently notified all the government agencies and corporations to reduce the sitting fees of the board members to Nu 5,000 a sitting for major companies and Nu 3,000 a sitting for the smaller companies.
DHI Chairman Om Pradhan said DHI and its companies were governed by the royal charter which gave them the full autonomy to decide on matters relating to DHI. The sitting fee, he said, was fixed during the time of inception by the then government and it was also in keeping with the wants of the present government.
“The assembly members should know that we are functioning within the legal framework and they should understand the position of the royal charter,” he said.
However, some NA members said that the interim Prime Minister fixing the sitting fee of the board members was not constitutional.
Article 19 of the constitution reads, “The Interim Government shall carry out the routine functions of the Government but shall not be entitled to take any policy decisions or enter into any agreement with foreign governments or organizations.”
The sitting fees for DHI and its companies, according to the Chairman, cannot be compared to others as it was instituted to safeguard the commercial objectives of the country. “People who deliver more are paid more. Comparing DHI with others is not rational,” he said.
On the Finance Ministry’s notification, Om Pradhan said the ministry could not interfere in the running of the board and, therefore, the notification did not apply to DHI. “The Ministry would just be overriding the royal charter,” he said.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Tshering Tobgay supported the Chairman of DHI. “So long as it’s legal, I will not interfere,” he said. He said that people were looking at the fees in isolation so they appeared too high, but in relation to their responsibilities and size of the companies, the fees weren’t as high.
“If we expect the board members to be able to look after and manage the companies meaningfully, the amount talked about is peanuts,” he said, adding that it would be illegal on the government’s part to impose any rules on DHI when they had their own charter that allowed them to set their own fees.
A parliamentarian, who requested anonymity, said the parliament shouldn’t waste time discussing the sitting fees, but should instead set targets for DHI in terms of dividends, government revenue, investments, and job creation. “Nothing better than this to get bigger and better benefits,” he said.
There are six DHI owned and six DHI linked companies. The Companies Act provides that every company shall hold a meeting of its board of directors at least once in every three months and at least four such meetings in a year. Till date this year, DHI’s seven-member board has held five board meetings. Another will be held in December. This will take the year’s sitting fee to Nu 630,000 excluding the bills on refreshments and stationeries.
Since its inception, DHI has held 15 board meetings. If DHI companies hold a minimum of four board meetings a year, the sitting fee amounts to Nu 2.952 million. Together, DHI and its companies use Nu 3.582 million for sitting in a year.
However, most companies have held more than four board meetings a year, which means the amount would be much higher. Company Secretary of DHI, Sonam Lhundrup, said the number of meetings depended on the urgency of issues.
DHI normally reserves budget for about five to six board meetings a year. “Our company was recently started and it will, therefore, hold frequent meetings. How the government agencies and corporations function is up to them,” he said.
| DHI owned companies | Druk Green Power Corporation | Bhutan Telecom | Bhutan Power Corporation | Druk Air Corporation | Natural Resources Development Corporation | Bank of Bhutan | Total amount (min. four meets a year) |
| No. of board members | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | |
| Sitting fees | 10000 | 8000 | 8000 | 8000 | 8000 | 8000 | 1304000 |
| DHI linked companies | STCB | Bhutan Board Products | Penden Cement Authority | Bhutan Ferro Alloys | Bhutan National Bank | RICB | |
| DHI linked companies | 7 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 7 | |
| No. of board members | 5000 | 7000 | 8000 | 10000 | 15000 | 10000 | 1648000 |
By Sonam Pelden
Loading ...
Comments
7 Responses to “Sitting fee contention”
Leave your comment
Loading ...Zakar for Thursday September 02 2010
th Day of the th Month - Year
Auspicious for:
Inauspicious for:
Recently Updated
- Nganglam needs the same favours
- Yangphel open archery tournament in the quarters
- Meet the wicked lady of Bhutanese films
- From dung to clean energy
- Contractors appeal to PM to solve stone shortage crisis
- Villagers cry foul of farm road alignment
- Tor Jap – hurling ritual cakes
- PTC teachers need professional incentives
- Tudors win easy over Aspens
- 136 power tillers distributed
Popular Articles
- Building and selling skills (535)
- Coming of the new God (270)
- Bhutan’s GDP growth up (80)
- Archery range still threatens lives (55)
- In peace, the King sleeps (40)
- First Bhutanese to run world-class marathon (378)
- Bhutan runs NY marathon (333)
- Burning a mountain with a single thought (203)
- Buddhas and Bars (159)
- Of those 6 months in Phuenthsoling (51)
Archives
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Nov | Jan » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
It will better for DPT to take over other organization left out by DHI and compete with them, because there is no use of having a government if DHI is not responsible to them and can do whatever they want. I think DHI chairman might be thinking of similar incentives when he was working for the UN Headquarter in New York.
I really do not see a reason why government cannot have control over DHI. For this very reason there were questions at the session of Prime Minister’s meeting with the senior civil servants, Is DHI a parallel government?
“DHI Chairman Om Pradhan said DHI and its companies were governed by the royal charter which gave them the full autonomy to decide on matters relating to DHI. The sitting fee, he said, was fixed during the time of inception by the then government and it was also in keeping with the wants of the present government.
“The assembly members should know that we are functioning within the legal framework and they should understand the position of the royal charter,” he said.” By stating this, ex-Lyonpo Om Pradhan is taking advantage of the Royal Charter. Anything not in the interest of public should be reviewed, to the extend even the activities under Royal Charter.
“The sitting fees for DHI and its companies, according to the Chairman, cannot be compared to others as it was instituted to safeguard the commercial objectives of the country. “People who deliver more are paid more. Comparing DHI with others is not rational,” he said.” What extra thing is done by DHI Board of Directors and Officials that others could not do? Anyone paid better is capable of doing better things. What is required is motivation. ex-Lyonpo Om Pradhan sounds DHI board of Directors and Officials to have unique qualifications and experiences.
“Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Tshering Tobgay supported the Chairman of DHI. “So long as it’s legal, I will not interfere,” he said. He said that people were looking at the fees in isolation so they appeared too high, but in relation to their responsibilities and size of the companies, the fees weren’t as high.” Tshering Tobgay, Opposition Leader by default has a vision of opposing what DPT Government propose because he is not capable of analyzing what is national interest and what is not. His capability is exhaustive if he has opposed to what Prime Minister or any DPT MP has said.
DHI is demoralizing civil service and draining down public exchequer.
Behind all this veiled arguments, it is clear that MPs are only concerned about how much they get in comparison to others, and their rank.
Recall all these issues taking up so much time, MP sitting fee in exchange for driver allowance, vehicle allowance, drama of demand for “patang” due to lack of “pata” from people, vehicle sticker, control of REC (what is it doing now?), Secretaries to serve only one term (maybe MPs should also have same term limit). MPs to participate in all meetings/trainings of Executive branch.
… so insecure….
Respect should be commanded not demanded. but with this trend, its not going to be possible.
Please do the job we voted you to do!
I’m glad there is atleast one parliamentarian who has some sense. To Quote;
“A parliamentarian, who requested anonymity, said the parliament shouldn’t waste time discussing the sitting fees, but should instead set targets for DHI in terms of dividends, government revenue, investments, and job creation. “Nothing better than this to get bigger and better benefits,” he said.”
Wow! YesheyP, well said and I completely agree for every point you said. I know that the Opposition Leader is suppose to oppose the ruling party but he should analyze the consequences of doing it, because when most of the people not only DPT member feels that DHI incentives is moving in the wrong direction, how come he accepts it lightly. I hope he is not making his way into DHI after this term.
People would be happy to hear from Lyonpo Om the reason why they are paid high incentives, not easily dragging our Royal name.
To me its rediculous that an agency in the govt like the DHI can get such massive benefits. I rightly pointed out by Lynpo Zangley it seriously needs to be reviewed. Chairman DHI’s comments are baseless. Should we be so lavish with our salaries and benefits I would have full support for agencies like ACC officials to be well paid.
There, what did I say? Now that the MPs have capped the Secretaries tenure, established their rank as equal to secretaries, and increased their own salaries. Its become crystal clear isnt it? All this talk about sitting fees is to raise their own salaries and to divert attention. Strange thing is that they and the Ministers cite the Pay Commission and take its recommendation selectively while applying a different criteria for civil servants and others.
And my view is that MPs should be equal to rank of directors at the most. Secretaries are the technical heads of Ministries within the Executive Branch. MPs are only one of many public servants within the Legislative Branch. They cant all be heads of the two houses. They way they behave, should be demoted further down.
May be we need a referendum since there is a conflict of interest when you make decisions for self-benefit.
DHI, why the need in first place? weren’t those companies not functioning before DHI? I see it as nothing but a drain on valuable resources. The fees they are getting for sitting is appaling. imagine a roadside worker earning paltry 3000 in one month while these bunch robs the nation 15000 for sitting in meeting.What about other perks like free foods, drinks et al.
Come back to senses DHI.