1. The Civil Service Act was supposed to be tabled for discussion during the dissolution of the last government. Why has it not been discussed? ?
The draft Civil Service Act (Bill) was tabled before the erstwhile National Assembly during its 87th session on 19 June, 2007. After some preliminary discussions, the then National Assembly directed the concerned authorities to revisit some of the clauses and resubmit them. The National Assembly was soon dissolved before the Bill could be resubmitted leading to the General Elections and the adoption of the Constitution in 2008.

2. Neither did the new government discuss it during the two sessions of parliament. What was the reason?
The earlier Royal Civil Service Commission was dissolved in July 2008 after adoption of the C onstitution and the present Royal Civil Service Commission appointed in February, 2009. The probable reason why the first 2 sessions of the Parliament could not discuss the Civil Service Bill was that there was no Royal Civil Service Commission during this interim period to take the necessary initiatives on the Bill.

3. When do you want it to be tabled next?
The new Royal Civil Service Commission has started reviewing the draft Bill. This will be followed by a series of consultations on the draft with its different stakeholders, mainly, a good cross section of our civil servants from across the country, before its submission to the Cabinet and then to the Parliament. Therefore, we hope that the Parliament will be able to discuss the Bill sometimes within this year itself.

4. How important is the Act?
The draft Act (Bill) is very important as it would update the laws relating to the Civil Service in line with the Constitution.

5. What guided the civil servants therefore in its absence?
Till the enactment of the new Civil Service Bill, the Royal Civil Service Commission and the civil servants throughout the country will continue to be guided and managed by

• The Royal Charter of the Royal Civil Service Commission, 1982,
• Article 26 and other relevant clauses of the Constitution, and
• the Bhutan Civil Service Rules and Regulations, 2006.

6. With the Act in place, how will the civil servants benefit?
he draft Civil Service Act when enacted will update the existing civil service laws and all the relevant rules and regulations, and thus bring our Civil Service in line with all the other developments in post Constitution Bhutan. 7. Why did the National Assembly pass the Judiciary, ACC and other Acts and why not the civil service Act?
We cannot answer this definitely. Perhaps, other Acts were submitted and passed whereas RCSC Act was submitted and returned, and could not be resubmitted in time before the dissolution of the erstwhile National Assembly.

8. Shouldn’t civil service Act have preceded over the others? Why?
Again, this is a hypothetical question that cannot be answered. It probably does not really matter which Acts are passed first or second or last as long as they are indeed passed.

9.The 81st resolution of the National Assembly stated that “the employees of the three branches should be under an autonomous independent civil service commission comprising of independent members serving for fixed term and that all matters related to the civil servants should be dealt by the commission.” How does it contradict with the ACC, Judiciary and the other acts as now they are independent from RCSC?
With the adoption of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan last year , the Constitution supersedes all earlier laws. The Constitution mandates the RCSC as ‘the central personnel agency of the Government’.

10. We hear that already other agencies such as teachers, doctors and engineers would like to delink from the civil service as a precedent has already been set by delinking the judiciary and ACC. Shouldn't we allow them? If not why?
The Article 26 of the Constitution says that the RCSC is ‘independent and apolitical’ and is ‘the central personnel agency of the Government’.

11. Article 25 of the RCSC says "civil servants shall have recourse to justice through the Administrative Tribunal established under section 15 of Article 21 to hear their appeals against administrative decisions including those of the Commission." When do you establish one as all matters as of today are forwarded to the court?
The Administrative Tribunal specified in the Constitution should be established soon after the enactment of the Civil Service Bill.