Rwanda : Government sues public servants over corruption
A report released by the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA), indicates that the government of Rwanda has sued a total of 342 civil servants for causing massive financial losses to the government through fraud, illegal awarding of tenders and mismanagement of public assets.
Those indicted include financial controllers, heads of institutions and those in tender committees. They are also part of the 418 cases that are supposed to be investigated by NPPA, as indicated in the 2007 to 2010 Auditor General’s reports.
A total of 111 cases are also yet to be decided on while nine others implicating military officials were sent to the military tribunal.
Among the cases that appeared in court, a total of 75 cases have also been convicted to jail terms, between six months and eight years, for embezzling over Rwf383.6 million in tax payers’ money during the same period.
However, the prosecution has managed to recover over Rwf134.4 millions through fines levied on officials for failing to account for the missing funds, unpaid taxes or stolen money, during the same period. Over Rwf79.4 million are tax arrears while Rwf54.9 million are fines levied on officials.
The Prosecutor General, Martin Ngoga, , said on June 8, that some of the officials taken to court are still in service, pending action by higher authorities, but the list of names was to be forwarded to the Prime Minister’s office to decide their fate of whether to continue serving as their cases are still in court or be laid off.
Ngoga also explained that most of the accountability issues are evident at the lower levels of administration- where most of the budget is spent, a reason why they are the most implicated in financial issues.
The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), early this year, published a report regarding the loss of Rwf 9.7 billion highlighted in the 2009/2010 Auditor General’s report. The PAC report indicated that there was lack of timely reporting on the status of public funds, mismanagement of public assets and hidden bank accounts.
