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.
