The Kashag at Central Tibetan Administration when gave a very surfaced reason against replacing the representative Penpa Tsering in a press conference on November 9, there was an uproar in the public for proper clarifications. Today Kashag has published a public clarification stating that based on a growing trust deficit, under performance and insubordination with the former speaker led to his ousting.
“At the time of his appointment as the North America Representative, Penpa Tsering said he doesn’t hold any grievances against Sikyong Lobsang Sangay and that the election phase was over. He also said now that Sikyong had placed trust in him, he would deliver his best and fulfill the objectives of Kashag. Unfortunately Representative Penpa Tsering was unable to transition from an elected representative to serving as a representative of the Central Tibetan Administration. This created a relationship characterized by lack of confidence and trust between him and the Kashag. The Kashag therefore made the decision to replace him based on three reasons: a growing trust deficit, under performance and insubordination.” said the clarification in the official website of Central Tibetan Administration.
Stating the three reasons, a growing trust deficit points to the following incident:
- The representative is reported to have deliberately informed the CTA auditors about the $1.5 Million outstanding record while Sikyong had already clarified that it wasn’t a loan rather a contribution from the Tibet Fund.
- The representative has been making disparaging remarks about Sikyong and the Kashag since July 2016 wherever he visited.
Under Performance from the Representative points to the following incidents:
- North America Representative, between August 2016-April 2017, important developments in the US which was Donald Trump’s victory, forming of the new Government, President Trump’s first meeting with President Xi Jinping, etc., had failed to submit formal reports, confidential or otherwise from the DC office to CTA as customary.
- Representative Penpa Tsering failed on DIIR’s mandatory standing order to report on Dolgyal-related activities pertaining to His Holiness’s security.
- Representative’s negligence and failure to conduct the simplest of due diligence caused unnecessary hassle and complications in the case of DC office’s five bank accounts.
Insubordination points to following incidents:
- In October 2016 Representative Penpa Tsering publicly announced Kunga Tashi will be posted in New York as the Chinese Liaison Officer and Coordinator without approval or consultation with the Kashag for DIIR.
- The representative refused to act on the reports of 2018 White House Budget zeroing out their aid to the Tibetan programs.
“No one incident triggered the Kashag’s decision. However, within a very short period of time, there were multiple lapses and an erosion of trust and confidence. The Office of Tibet in Washington, DC is one of the most important offices of CTA. The CTA’s and the collective interest of the Tibetan people demands that this important office be led by someone that has the trust and confidence of the Tibetan leadership. The Kashag, after careful deliberation and successive meetings unanimously decided to replace the Representative because of the three reasons: growing trust deficit, under performance and insubordination. Like at the time of Penpa Tsering’s appointment as the Representative, the Kashag again followed similar procedure to replace him as per the provisions in Article 1 (iii) of the Tibetan Charter.” added the report.
While there has been many speculations about the ousting of one of the highly respected public figures in the Tibetan community, this clarification should stand to silence all questions if the former speaker himself does not have anything to disagree with all the incidents pointed out by the Kashag.
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