Donors, namely the Government of India and the Austrian Development Assistance, provided a large portion of budgetary support to RCSC
The Royal Civil Service Commission’s (RCSC) expenditure in the fiscal year 2016-17 amounted to Nu 320mn.
According to the RCSC’s Annual Report (state of the royal civil service), 85.6% of the total revised budget has been utilized.
Although the approved budget for the fiscal year 2016-17 was Nu 286.9mn, it was later revised to Nu 373.7mn.
“The increase in the revised budget is attributed to additional and new supplementary budget incorporated during the year for activities such as young professional leadership program, foundational leadership program, Bhutan Civil Service Examination, civil service awards, and purchase of vehicles,” states the report.
About 99% of the current budget was utilized and 82.6% of the capital budget.
A total of Nu 320mn was utilized out of the total revised budget with a remainder of Nu 53.6mn.
“The underutilization was mainly driven by the delay in fund release for those projects funded by the Government of India (GoI), which constituted 58.1% of the total budget,” states the report.
The report also states that these funds and related activities will be implemented in the coming fiscal year.
According to the report, of the total revised budget, the GoI funded Nu 217.4mn through GOI-PTA (Project Tied Assistance) project which aimed to professionalize the civil service and Nehru-Wangchuck Scholarships Programme.
Other donors included the Government of Austria, which funded Nu 14.5mn through Sustainable Human Resource Development Project for training of civil servants, while the remaining budget of Nu 141.4mn was supported through Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB).
Of the total Nu 141.1mn donated by RGoB, Nu 138.3m was utilized which is 97.7% utilization.
According to RCSC, as the central personnel agency of the government, it is mandated to cater to the professional development and training needs of the entire civil service.
“During the year, a sum of Nu 276.2mn was allocated entirely for this purpose,” states the report.
The rest-Nu 15.6mn was utilized for the conduct of the Bhutan Civil Service Examination while the operational expenditure for RCSC Secretariat amounted to a total of Nu 81.9mn.
Lucky Wangmo from Thimphu
