Rwanda : Over 200 civil servants suspected for mismanaging public funds

More than 200 public servants have been listed for investigation by the Prime Minister’s Office for allegedly mishandling public funds.

The officials were pointed to in the 2010/2011 Auditor General’s report and were forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office in July.

But Auditor General Obadiah Biraro revealed that this figure is nowhere near as sinister as it sounds.

“The number of officials involved in these errors is actually decreasing, and many of those listed probably mishandled money out of ignorance, not corruption”

The most recent auditor general’s report showed unsupported expenditures totaling 5.9 billion Rwanda francs.

But Biraro says that’s nothing when compared to total government spending in 2011, which was almost 1.3 trillion Rwandan francs.

Biraro also says that the majority of that near 6-billion franc amount in question was due to management failures in one institution alone, which he could not name.

A local News paper reported that Eastern Province had the best track record for producing clean audits.

It said that Kigali districts like Gasabo, Nyarugenge and Kicukiro were the most involved in awarding illegal tenders, resulting in a loss of $722 million.

Biraro says it was Western, not Eastern Province that returned the clean audits and it’s only natural for urban districts to have more errors in handling funds.

Because urban districts handle a significantly larger amount of transactions, on a more regular basis, which means more opportunities for mistakes.

The Auditor General however says the number of errors detected in his office’s last report is a sign that Rwanda’s finances are being well looked after.

Biraro says punishments for officials found guilty of mismanaging funds could range from reprimands, to pay cuts, to dismissals, depending on the intent behind their actions.