Bhutan recruitment agencies warned

Phuentsholing: The labor ministry has warned the Foreign Workers Recruitment Agency (FWRA) to deliver services professionally or close down. “With the monitoring on the FWRA, we will ensure your business only if the quality is good,” said the labor secretary, Dasho Dr. Sonam Tenzin. The agencies will be evaluated annually, he said. In a two-day consultative workshop with the private and corporate sector, he said some of the agencies will lose their licenses and it will be taken up by those who can deliver quality service.

The secretary said the function of the agency was not only to recruit laborers, but also to take the workers out of the country after the completion of the project. “The agency at the present just wants to take the commission, dump the workers and wash off their hands. Their responsibility is right from the start to the finish. Now, the Resolution of the 87th National Assembly Session Areas(repair and maintenance) By Government By people under Zhabto Lemi Community and institutionally owned lhakhangs Major by government Minor by people RWSS, water reservoir and irrigation channels For major, provide construction materials and masonries Minor by people (RWSS below 10 km and irrigation channel below 5km). Mule tracks and suspension bridges For major provide materials Minor by people Farm roads As per MoA’s policy approved during the 85th NA Session Community Schools (Construction and maintenance) Government provides CGI sheet and skilled labor while community will provide labor and other requirements, and maintenance fully by the people. The NA decision came a day after the National Council had resolved to ask the government to either end the Zhapto-Lemi system or to make necessary changes to benefit the people. The 87th Assembly resolution revolves around the idea of Understandings (MoUs) will be signed between the government and the communities for every scheme specifying the labor contribution. The Zhapto-Lemi issue was raised by the Drakteng-Langthel MP of Trongsa Rinchen 45 to 75 days. The minister told BT that the Zhapto-Lemi Act had not been implemented effectively. The Act had identified schemes under eight different sectors and all work specifications for labor contribution pointed out only repair and maintenance works and not construction works. Thus, the 87th Assembly’s resolution of requiring labor for the construction of community schools is not as per the revoked Act.

Lyonpo Dorji Wangdi said Zhapto-Lemi became a burden for the people only when they were employed for construction projects. In the house, the minister said the Zhapto-Lemi issue had been deliberated in 10 National Assembly sessions in the past since 1980.

The Assembly’s resolution to repeal the Act was proposed by the labor minister. He also said “Nonetheless, it will be considered important to retain its key principles of people’s participation, local governance and decentralized decision-making, among others.”

Seven MPs proposed the Zhapto-Lemi system should be reduced to benefit the people. Punakha MP Tshering Penjor said Zhabtog Lemi should exist in some areas and the government should ensure that people are not made to contribute labor under the guise of Zhabto-Lemi. The Opposition Leader proposed the Zhabto-Lemi system was against the idea of equity and justice. He said it was not fair to impose Zhabto-Lemi only on the rural people. “Even the people from urban areas should be made to contribute Zhabto-Lemi,” he proposed drawing the ire of the DPT dominant house. In reply, the agriculture minister, Lyonpo Dr. Pema Gyamtsho said one cannot equate the idea of equity and justice to the Zhapto-Lemi system. He said people in urban areas paid taxes which compensated for the labor contribution. Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba said Zhapto-Lemi has benefited the country. He said Bhutan is an aid-dependent country and if Zhabto-Lemi is discontinued, the government will have to garner more funds to carry out the works which meant more dependence on aids. In the National Council on January 7, Trashigang MP Sonam Kinga proposed that Zhapto-Lemi was not fair on the people as some contributed more labor than others. Dasho Karma Ura said out of 125,000 households in the country, 37,000 households needed to contribute labor. Out of 37,000, about 18% (6,660) of the households were exempted and the remaining (31,080) were contributing labor. He said 57% of the villagers offering Zhabto-Lemi services were either unpaid or paid only Nu 1,000 to 2,000 for the annual work. A Zhabto-Lemi worker is entitled to get Nu 100 per day. Tshering, a civil servant commented on the NA resolution: “Revoking the Act but retaining the Zhapto-Lemi system does not make sense. It does not change anything for villagers contributing labor. After all, they will still be carrying the spades and sweating when they are summoned to contribute labor.”

Another civil servant said, “The resolution zeroes down to zero output.” agencies will have to deliver. There should not be any lapses in the security,” he said. As soon as an agency gets approval for foreign workers, it was the responsibility of an agency to screen the workers, complete the immigration and medical formalities with the employers, he added. “In case of laborers absconding, the agents and employers would be held responsible,” he said.

The secretary also said all skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled foreign workers should be routed through the FWRA. “With all the mega power projects coming up and foreign workers to be routed through the agency, we will have to see whether the agencies are able to handle this. This is a policy we are trying to incorporate for all time to come,” he said. Given the large demand of labor with the projects coming up, a labor agent said the present ten agencies in Phuentsholing will have a grueling task ahead. He said there were restrictions from the Road Safety and Transport Authority while deploying buses to reach workers to the site and the City Corporation objected the setting up of transit camps for the laborers.

The director general of labor, Pema Wangda, said if the selected ten agencies for Phuentsholing are not able to cope up and if the workload is heavy, the ministry would recommend some more agencies. He said numerous illegal activities was prevalent earlier while recruiting workers. And this was the main reason in reducing the number of FWRA agencies from more than 30 to 10.

“It had become such a racket. Some agencies had even sold sealed and signed premedical forms,” he said. The proprietor of Dheychhog Workforce Services, Karma Dorji, said the compulsory routing of the foreign workers through the agency is attractive, but the most important thing is that the ministry implements it.

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Construction siphon billions

The National Assembly Monday agreed the construction industry is infestedwith numerous gray areas and is wasting government money in billions.

The main fallouts identified in the sector were fronting, illegal sub-contracting, collusion and formation of syndicates among contractors.

The health minister, Lyonpo Zanglay Dukpa, said fronting and syndicate of contractors is a problem, and it is hampering the quality of works. An MP said the collusion between contractors and engineers is also rampant.

Ugyen Wangdi, an MP from Mongar, said the two major problems in the sector are fronting and sub-contracting and said there are no strict rules to monitor it. He said the existing rules impose just Nu 2,000 on those who violate them.

The MPs proposed for stricter rules to be implemented. They said defaulting contractors should be penalized and the licenses cancelled. Proposing the existing rules to be reviewed, the MPs said the rules have failed to create an enabling environment for contractors and the contracting agencies.

The works and human settlements minister, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba, said works on rectifying lapses in the construction sector have reached an advanced stage.

The past problems, he said, were not because of the absence of rules. It was the difficulty in implementing them. Sometimes, responsibilities of the ministry outweighed its capacity and expertise.

The health minister, Lyonpo Zanglay Dukpa, said some construction companies could not even interpret the construction designs and ended up floundering projects. He said the designing capability was poor in the absence of experts. According to Gasa MP, Damchoe Dorji, a major problem in the industry is between contractors and the government. Sometimes supervising engineers certify the work, and contractors are implicated even after their liability period, when the work is audited.

Legally, he said, the supervising agency that certified the work should be responsible and not the contractors, “or the auditing should be done within the liability period.” The labor minister, Lyonpo Dorji Wangdi, disagreed. He said the contractors should also be held responsible in meeting requirements of the contractual agreement. “If the supervising engineers are held solely responsible, then there is no use of a contractual agreement,” he said.

Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba said rules are being reviewed outlining clear roles and responsibilities of contractors and contracting agencies to address problems related to procurement, tender and contractual agreements.

Finance Minister Lyonpo Wangdi Norbu said the rules have been changed twice. This time, he said, new international standard Procurement Manual has been framed involving the relevant stakeholders: contractors, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Royal Audit Authority.

Further, the MPs pointed out that fronting with foreign companies has affected the growth of the construction industry. They said fronting should be considered a serious corruption offence. The issue was discussed after the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly presented the Annual Audit Report (2007) Review. The Review pointed out deficiencies, ambiguity and impracticalities of rules and regulations in the construction sector. Lapses in the industry range from planning, defective contractual agreements, and inadequate supervision and monitoring of works, states the Review. Another problem is “abnormal variation in costs in different places for similar works and inadequate system of check and balance.” In the 9th Plan, the construction sector recorded a wastage of 46% of the total cost amounting between Nu 4.37 to Nu 7.06 billion.

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A tough job well done by Dasho Kunzang Wangdi

In the small space of Bhutanese society, simple issues can become extremely protracted, personalised and tense. When the general election was announced and two major political parties emerged, the Bhutanese populace knew it was not going to be an easy situation. Individuals and communities were going to be pitted against each other, out in the open. It was going to be rough going. Dasho Kunzang Wangdi was selected for the job, a choice that did not surprise many. A known face in a small society and, after about five years in audit, an established reputation of one, who would not be easily intimidated in the execution of his duties.

True to public expectations, allegations began to fly even before formal campaigning began. At a time when everyone seemed to be accusing everyone else for everything, Dasho Kunzang Wangdi and the election commission of Bhutan (ECB) were accused of siding both parties, of muzzling the media, and running the election like a dictator.

Some said he did not make decisions, some said he made too many. ECB did conduct a number of investigations. It also reprimanded political candidates and the media now and then. The wisdom of it all may be debated for a long time to come.

In the end, ECB delivered an election that Bhutanese voters may also debate long and hard over, but EU observers found it free and fair. “It was definitely challenging but we know we handled the situation quite well,” said the chief election commissioner (CEC). Those who know Dasho Kunzang Wangdi, however, say that this was an understatement. Those who watched the announcement say that, while he was never an eloquent speaker, he seemed particularly overwhelmed, on national television, when he announced that the general election had been a success and that His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo’s vision had been achieved. “Until this day, he just goes quiet and doesn’t say a word when I ask him about that moment,” said his wife, Pem Tandin. That was the ‘other side’ to this tough guy. Some colleagues were surprised to discover that Dasho Kunzang Wangdi likes singing and dancing (boedra) far more than speaking. Dasho himself believes that he’s been able to serve the nation and perform his duties because of the seven women in his life: his wife, five daughters and mother-in-law.

If you look for anomalies in this man’s life, Dasho Kunzang Wangdi’s hobbies are photography, reading and watching the world wrestling entertainment on TV.

What’s it like to work with Dasho Kunzang Wangdi? Colleagues say that he is firm, sometimes to the extent of adamancy. Others opine he is by nature a conciliator. But it was in the royal audit authority (RAA), where Dasho Kunzang Wangdi worked as auditor general, that he earned his reputation for getting results by steadfastness.

“Let’s put everything out in the open and deal with it,” he said. “What isn’t yours isn’t yours.” Audit reports were made public for the first time, a largely unpopular move at the time. How seriously does he take his job? After he became auditor general, Dasho Kunzang sold his archery set and stopped playing. “Archery meant meeting friends and making more new friends. But friendship and auditing do not go hand in hand and I thought I’d make these friends upset one day while auditing.” What kept him going? “I got used to criticism and accusations because my conscience was clear. It bothered my family more than it did me but I had to perform my duties without fear or favour.”

Dasho Kunzang Wangdi was once caught cheating in an examination in junior high school. “It taught me that hard work and following the rules would never get you in trouble,” he said. That invaluable lesson got him through high school with the highest score among Bhutanese schools in the ICS examinations in 1973. He earned an honour’s degree in Arts from St Stephen’s college in India and went to the United States in 1979 to study how to set up a merit-based civil service

in Bhutan. He worked in the department of manpower, now RCSC, the ministry of trade and industry, and the royal institute of management. By the time he became the chief election commissioner in December 2005, he had reinforced his reputation as a no-nonsense man and tough taskmaster, who wants more than business as usual. On December 17, 2008, His Majesty awarded the Druk Thuksey to the chief election commissioner for the ‘successful general elections at the start of democracy’ and for his ‘personal integrity and hard work’.

“I feel fortunate because I was at the right place at the right time,” he said. “I was given a new job for which I had to develop an interest and learn and I gave it my best. But there’s a challenge ahead of me and my colleagues to conduct future elections more professionally.” Dasho Kunzang Wangdi, now 55 years, is ready for those challenges.

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No more meat ban in Bhutan

Almost eight years after the government banned the sale of meat on auspicious months (1st and 4th months of the Bhutanese calendar), the National Assembly on January 8 lifted the ban.

But the house agreed to prohibit the sale of meat on the auspicious days of 8th, 15th and 30th day of every Bhutanese month, and on the 4th day of the 6th month. Sale of meat would also be banned on the descending day of Lord Buddha. The agriculture minister, Pema Gyamtsho, told the house that the ban was ineffective. He said that the rule was there but nobody actually followed it. “The ban was in fact risky for consumers, because thousands of people rushed to the meat stalls around the country to stock up for weeks ahead of the ban,” he said. “People stocked meat in refrigerators and some used unhygienic ways with risks of food poisoning and other diseases.”

The minister said that many tourists and guests faced inconvenience during the ban. He also said that, in these two auspicious months, many Bhutanese conduct a series of religious rituals, of which meat was an important part.

Gasa MP Damchoe Dorji also argued that the ban should not be lifted. He said that the ban in the two most auspicious months would not only save the lives of many animals, but stop the slaughterhouses and farms, which would come up in the country in future.

While some MPs said that most people still consume meat during the auspicious months, some said that the two-month ban would only work if Bhutanese people consciously stop eating meat. But many members of parliament agreed with the agriculture minister that, with the ban, lives of animals were shortened by months because of the demand of the people, who stored meat in advance.

The owner of Capital meat shop in Thimphu told Kuensel that his sales escalated by more than double just before the ban. Records from the Bhutan agriculture and food regulatory authority in Thimphu showed that Bhutan imports about 6000 kg of beef, 3000 kg of pork and some 2500 kg of fish daily. Bhutan imported around 3,000 metric tonnes of beef, 2,000 metric tonnes of pork and around 1,500 metric tonnes of fish in 2008.

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The view from the Newyork sidewalk

The scrapers are the towering hills, that cast long shadows and block the winter sun, the constant stream of vehicles on the streets is the flowing river, the Apple and FAO Schwarz (toy) stores are monasteries, that draw long lines of people keen to make monetary offerings and exit with something to feel good about.

And, on the sidewalks, braving freezing temperatures for an average of 10 hours a day, are several Bhutanese selling pictures of the New York skyline, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, copies of New Yorker and Vogue magazine covers and Broadway posters, all neatly framed and laid on a table and hung on a metal rack that resembles a meshed cage.

The analogy of the location, 58th street on Manhattan’s 5th avenue, to home provide little comfort to the vendors, whose fingertips are hard, the skin around the nails cracked and scarred from handling and fitting frames, and look dressed to walk through a blizzard - in sober coloured windcheaters that hide several layers of clothing.

What would be comforting to them and make the cold bearable is good sales. Of the hundreds, that pass by every few minutes, many stop to look, a few buy. “It’s slow compared to past winters,” says Karma, who has been selling pictures for the past seven years.

By early afternoon, clouds begin to blanket the Manhattan sky, hinting of a possibility of rain and snow, as the weather forecast had said, but Karma is calm. He looks south towards Staten Island and west towards New Jersey - it’s like looking down two long corridors without a ceiling.

The horizon shows patches of blue. “If you see dark clouds in that direction, then it’s time to quickly pack,” says Karma, a big man by Bhutanese standards, who ties his hair in a ponytail. “Within 25 minutes, the rain reaches Manhattan.”

Weather forecasts by the hour may not always be on the dot, but it is a ritual for the former monk to keeps tabs every evening. “Our life revolves around the weather,” he says. That means zapping through five or six weather channels, which can have differing forecasts, and surfing the web as well, which gives hour-by-hour forecasts.

Most vendors have learnt to check the weather once every morning even if the previous day’s forecast predicted a 80 percent chance of snow or rain.

Sometimes, Arial, a 22-year-old Russian Jew, who sells water-colours on the same sidewalk and is friends with the Bhutanese vendors, has friends calling to say if it’s raining in nearby New Jersey.

Over the past week, most sidewalk vendors prayed for good weather because it was the last few days of the holiday season, which begins from Thanksgiving, the last Thursday of November, and ends after New Years’, the best time to sell memorabilia to tourists and visitors from other US states that crowd the city during this time.

A day lost to rain or snow, during the holiday season, is lost opportunity that will return only a year later. It could mean close to a month’s rent if one is lucky or a portion of the utility bills or just enough to pay the day’s meals. “It’s a lesson in patience,” say vendors. Some vendors risk going out in the snow and rain knowing that most other vendors would be indoors, driven by the bug to make money and to make it fast.

How much business a vendor does depends on a number of things. Being strategically located is prime. The sidewalks of 58th street, where Karma and several other Chinese, Tibetan, Russian and Nepali vendors set up their tables everyday, is considered a good spot.

Three years ago, the area was a cordoned off dead spot, when the Apple store was still under construction. When it opened, in the fall of 2006, vendors quarreled almost everyday for three months for a place on the sidewalk. Sometimes it meant going at three in the morning to be the first one there.

Every now and then the quarrelling vendors called the cops to settle the dispute. They always ask, “Who came here first”? Maintaining good links with the security personnel of the nearby buildings helped.

There is also competition on what pictures to sell. This season’s new hot sellers were president-elect Barack Obama and Jonas Brothers, the teen boy band. One story doing the rounds with picture vendors is about a Russian guy, who sold 2,000 buttons of Barack Obama, for two dollars a button, two nights before the election. That’s the kind of business picture vendors hope to hit once in several years.

Sunday, the day of rest, is a stressful time for sidewalk vendors and occasionally begins with heated arguments even among friends. On Sunday fifth avenue is open for every kind of vendor to scramble for a spot on the sidewalk on a first-come-first-served basis.

This makes it a very early day for picture vendors to push their handcart, with the merchandise, out of the underground garage across several streetlights to the sidewalk. Vendors do not need to wait for the blue license holder, only given to war veterans, to start setting up their table.

A number of Bhutanese have taken to selling pictures after trying out jobs in kitchens and retail stores. Most say they prefer being a vendor to be their own boss. “Whether you work seven days a week or one day, it’s all up to you,” says Sonam, 34, whose table is on 51st street.

But most try their best to meet the financial needs of family and hope that it can make up to some extent their being an absentee family member, who’s only heard on the phone.

When the next day’s forecast looks bad, vendors try and stay out a little longer in the evening, till the crowd completely thins out, to make up for the possible lost hours and then meet up with the other Bhutanese vendors for a session of “marriage”.

But there are days when vendors just wish for a rainy day to give themselves a break, do laundry, cook some Bhutanese food, sleep in longer than usual and hope that tomorrow is a good day.

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