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PDP refutes corruption on road contract

The People’s Democratic Party has written to the Auditor General asking for an opportunity to clarify and justify the audit findings against two of its former ministers in the alleged direct award of East-West highway construction contract package to Empire Construction.

The party’s statement was in response to news about an alleged corruption case that the Anti-Corruption Commission forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General involving two of its former ministers.

The former finance minister Namgay Dorji and works and human settlement minister Dorji Choden have been alleged of abuse of power in relation to contravening procurement rules and directly awarding construction work Empire Construction. 

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) clarified yesterday that the decision to award the contract Package XV of the Northern East-west Highway Project (NEHP) to Empire Construction was made to prevent delays and economic losses for the country and the case pertains to widening a rocky road stretch critical for completing the Mangdechhu Hydropower Project Authority (MHPA).  

The PDP’s press release stated that due to delays and associated risks, it was decided, through joint meetings involving relevant stakeholders, to make the contractor surrender the contract and accept compensatory work to prevent delays, economic losses and risk to people’s lives.

“This decision was made to prevent delays and thus a potential loss of Nu 22 million per day from MHPA power generation,” the party stated. “These decisions were made collectively through various levels of meetings and were in accordance with procurement rules.”

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