Commitment shy capital city?

International Anti-Corruption Day: In the last 10 days, only 289 Thimphu residents turned up to pledge their commitment against corruption in the book that the Anti-Corruption Commission kept open only in Thimphu since it observed the international anti-corruption day on December 10.

The book, which has a capacity for 3,000, has so far recorded pledges from 194 males and 95 females from Thimphu. The commission’s program coordinator Karma Rinzin, said the pledge book was kept open at the clock tower square and the ACC office.

“We advised our staff not to force anyone to sign on the book, since we wanted to see how many would turn up voluntarily,” he said.

However, the turnout has not been encouraging and to analyse or draw any conclusions, based on the small figure, would be difficult, he said. “Therefore, we’re planning to extend and keep the book open for public, until the pages are filled,” he said. “But the book will be kept at the lobby of ACC office.”

Karma Rinzin said the idea of the pledge book was to see how serious and concerned people were about fighting corruption. “Once we get quite a number of people, we’ll be able to come up with measures to help prevent corruption in the country,” he said.

Of the total 289 people, who pledged so far, the highest are civil servants at 84, followed by public at 80, 65 students, 43 business people and 17 from civil society organisations. “On an average, 29 people came forward to pledge their commitment every day,” he said.

Bad News for applicants.

Australian Endeavour Award: Bhutanese, who applied for the Australian Endeavour Award scholarship, and waited for more than six months, were disappointed to learn that they were not awarded the scholarship.

The Endeavour Award scholarship results for postgraduate award that included masters and PhD, Endeavour Research Fellowship and Endeavour VET awards were declared on the evening of December 17.  As of last evening, applicants were trying to find out if anyone had been awarded the scholarship, but had not come across anyone who had.

It is estimated that at least 2,000 Bhutanese had applied for the scholarships to study in Australia, which has become the top destination, besides India, for higher education and other reasons.

A media consultant of a private firm, who applied for a PhD scholarship, said he received calls from people, asking him if he was awarded the scholarship. “I seriously feel that the Australian government had to cut down the 2013 intake, because of fund constraints, or diverted the fund to some needy scholarship,” he said.

Comments on Sydney-based Macquire University’s online news for the international community also says applicants from Bangladesh and India also did not get the scholarships.

Officials from Australian high commission in Delhi refuted claims that no one from Bhutan got the Endeavour Award.

The head of education section, Dr Peter, said, while they do not have the authority to give details of how many Bhutanese applied and how many were awarded the scholarship, some Bhutanese have got the scholarship. “It’s an international merit-based scholarship, and this year’s scholarship was highly competitive,” he said.

Dr Peter also said there was no policy change as such, and that the scholarship was across the Asian region.

Some Bhutanese applicants said the letter of regret they received stated the fund for the scholarship had been reduced and the scholarship was highly competitive.

An unsuccessful applicant questioned why the letter, stating he didn’t get through, was dated October 24, but was received only last morning.

Some applicants said that not getting the award was not such a disappointment, because it was their third time trying.

A few applicants have not yet received confirmation on whether they have got the scholarship or not.