Press Release by Bhutanese American Community Members living in Central PA

Bhutanese American Community Members living in Central PA Express Serious Concern Over BCCPA’s Purported Investigation Into Its Own Chairman

[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA] — 8/24/2026

The Bhutanese Community of Central Pennsylvania (BCCPA) exists to help Bhutanese American families navigate difficult times, including mental health struggles, to advocate for those who need someone in their corner, oftentimes urgent, and to run meaningful projects and events that hold this community together. These mission objectives depend on leadership the community can trust and the Board that follows its own rules. 

This statement is released to explain to the broader community members why the undersigned community members and organization leaders have concluded they can no longer trust the process behind one of the most consequential decisions this organization has made: the removal of Chairman Mr. Youraj Koirala, based on a purported investigation for which no scope, findings, or timeline have ever been produced.

A Quick Look at What Happened

• July 25, 2026: A private matter arose during a staff retreat event which board members were invited to attend. Mr. Koirala addressed it at the time in accordance with the wishes of the individual most-impacted by the situation. Its details are not the subject of this statement and remain confidential.
• July 31, 2026: An emergency Board meeting was called by the Vice Chair, not the Board Chair, as BCCPA’s bylaws require. The Executive Director’s invite left out at least one other Board Member, and not everyone was told the meeting’s purpose in advance. Mr. Koirala learned it was about his own removal only after the meeting began, under an ultimatum from the ED and staff: remove him, or they’d resign and report BCCPA to its funders.

Under that pressure, Mr. Koirala verbally offered to resign; the Board did not accept it. He followed up by text, confirming he’d offered his resignation but that the Board hadn’t accepted it, and that he’d send a formal resignation email within a few days. He never sent it. The Board restricted him from his duties anyway, citing an “investigation” with no defined scope.

• August 2, 2026: At a meeting held at Mr. Koirala’s request, but which he was asked by the Vice Chair not to attend in person, he submitted a written statement asserting his resignation was never valid, and asked the Board to resolve the matter by August 9.
• August 5, 2026: The Board wrote to Mr. Koirala, stating that his resignation would not take effect until an investigation concluded and its findings were reviewed, promising to share the outcome. However, the date passed. No findings. No scope. No timeline. Nothing to indicate an investigation was underway came from the Board.
• August 10, 2026: Having heard nothing, Mr. Koirala informed the Board he was resuming his duties.
• August 11, 2026: One day later, following another emergency meeting held the night before under the same irregular circumstances as the one on July 31, BCCPA’s Facebook page announced the Board had accepted his resignation and named new leadership, six days after promising in writing that nothing would happen until an investigation concluded.
• August 11, 2026 (later that day): Following the Facebook post, a number of questions and concerns were raised in the comment section but were never answered. Although all Board Members were invited, only two attended a community meeting held that same day evening, at which Mr. Koirala shared with community members what had happened and asked to be heard.

At the August 15 community meeting held by BCCPA, attendees repeatedly asked the Board to clarify the investigation, its scope, its findings, and who conducted it. Those questions were never answered. Mr. Koirala himself was sent out of the meeting, not even permitted to remain as an ordinary community member. Community members asked whether he could at least stay and listen without speaking and offered assurance that he would not respond or react. He was made to leave anyway and was only allowed to listen toward the tail end of the meeting. 

As the meeting closed without resolving anything, the Vice Chair told the community that another, smaller meeting would follow soon, with more information provided at that time. That was more than a week ago. Despite repeated follow-up emails, no meeting has been scheduled and no response has come.

We have no direct evidence of why, but the pattern is hard not to notice: dismissal, derailment, and rambling began right as the community’s questions started pointing toward the investigation itself. A verbal commitment made directly to this community, then quietly left unanswered for a week, is not accountability. It is, at best, avoidance.

Therefore, we the undersigned community members discredit the investigation BCCPA’s Board used to justify removing Chairman Youraj Koirala, based on the following findings from the past few weeks:

1. No scope was ever defined. The Board cited an “investigation” without ever specifying what it covered. Neither the scope nor the timeline of the “investigation” was ever shared with the individual “said” to be investigated. 
2. No findings were ever produced. Nearly two weeks after the Board’s own written commitment to complete one, nothing has been shared. 
3. No timeline was honored. Mr. Koirala asked the Board to resolve this matter by August 9 because of the stake involved in any prolonged absence of his from BCCPA. Mr. Koirala offered to step aside until August 9th so that a proper investigation could occur, and if required, resign after the findings of the investigation; that date passed with no updates of any kind.
4. Investigation” was skewed before it began. The individuals investigating Mr. Koirala were the same people privy to the petition and in prior deliberations with the ED and staff, before the full Board even knew the July 31 meeting’s purpose. Those leading the “investigation” used his sidelining to move into higher Board roles themselves, the Vice Chair became Acting Chair, and a regular Board Member became Acting Vice Chair. At least one Director was also allegedly engaged in calls with community members seeking Mr. Koirala’s replacement as Chairman.
5. The meeting that started this process was not properly called. BCCPA’s bylaws require a Board Director’s removal to happen at a meeting “duly called for such purpose” by the Board Chair. This meeting was called by the Vice Chair and the ED instead, and its purpose was withheld from several Board Members until it had already begun.
6. A verbal commitment to the community was abandoned. After the August 15 meeting, the Board promised a follow-up to answer outstanding questions. A week later, that promise remains unmet. Multiple emails, including one on August 17 offering several dates and times, have gone unanswered. The community members feel that the Board has repeatedly, and deliberately, ignored its own commitment to the community.
7. The Chairman was excluded from decisions made about him. At more than one point in this process, Mr. Koirala, and at least two other Board Members, were left out of meetings and communications that everyone else on the Board received.
8. No resignation ever met the bylaws’ own standard. BCCPA’s bylaws require a Board Chair to give at least three months’ written notice to resign. Nothing in this record comes close, regardless of what was said under pressure in a difficult meeting.

Taken together, these facts leave us unable to recognize BCCPA’s “investigation” as genuine, independent, or credible. It looks instead like a mechanism for sidelining the Chairman while decisions about his leadership were already being made.

That disruption placed people into new roles with no transition plan and no visible regard for BCCPA’s ongoing community work. The cost of that showed at the community meeting, when one Board Director called BCCPA a “recommending body” and suggested Mr. Koirala had done “too much” by directly assisting families in distress. An organization built to serve and advocate for this community cannot retreat from that mission because a former Chairman carried it out with unusual dedication. If helping families through crisis is “too much,” the Board owes this community a clear answer: what does it believe BCCPA’s purpose is, and who is it meant to serve?

This will not be the end of our scrutiny. If the Board’s accountability stops here, the community is prepared to look further, including into BCCPA’s finances and current projects, under this leadership and past leadership alike. Trust, once broken, is not rebuilt by silence.

Finally, and most importantly, investigation with no scope, no findings, and no timeline is not a reason to keep a Chairman from his community service. It is an excuse. Families are waiting on support that has stalled for over three weeks. The dedication of the next generation leader, Mr. Koirala should not be met with discouragement. The community work he was undertaking must be respected and must not be left unfinished. And the BCCPA Mela, an event this community has always taken pride in, needs his leadership and chairmanship to prepare it properly. The community has waited long enough. The distraction must stop. It’s time to get back to real work without further delay. 

 

Sincerely, 

Community Members of the Bhutanese Community of Central Pennsylvania

1. Mr. Bishwanath Chettri 
2. Dr. Khem Adhikari
3. Mr. Narad Adhikari 
4. Mr. Tika Dhungana 
5. Mr. Binay Luitel 
6. Mr. Amal Thulung
7. Mr. Bharat Timsina 
8. Mr. Ankit Sapkota
9. Mr. Parsu Adhikari 
10. Mr. Ratna Gurung 
11. Mr. Suk Tamang
12. Mrs. Binita Puri Rai 
13. Mrs. Shova Ghimirey
14. Mr. Narayan Gautam 
15. Mr. Mahesh Neopaney
16. Mr. Govin Kharel
17. Mr. Ashok Rai
18. Mr. Raney Rai
19. Mr. Roshan Mishra
20. Mr. Khagen Ghimirey 
21. Mr. Bhagirath Khatiwada 
22. Mr. Dhiren Chauhan
23. Mr. Narayan Dhungana 
24. Mr. Hamesh Dhungana 
25. Mr. Ganga Ram Khatiwada 
26. Mr. Gopal Kattel 
27. Mr. Bhuwani Koirala
28. Mr. Arpan Tiwari
29. Mr. Umesh Siwakoti 
30. Mr. Biraj Adhikari
31. Mr. Madhav Baskota
32. Mr. Pratap Monger
33. Mr. Amrit Ghimirey
34. Mrs. Nirmala Subedi
35. Mr. Dennis Bhattarai 
36. Mr. Biraj Adhikari
37. Mr. Abishek Rimal

Media Contact:

Mr. Shiva Dahal & Mr. Ramesh Gautam, Bhutaneseliterature.com 

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