Gasabo District is home to several lucrative businesses. Most of the government institutions and major development projects such as the Special Economic Zone are located in the district.

Residents will also be quick to remind you that this is the cradle of Rwanda, alluding to the Urwanda rwa Gasabo hypothesis.

However, despite all these, the district continues to perform dismally in the execution of the performance contracts (Imihigo), a major public sector performance yardstick.

In the latest report published last month, Gasabo was ranked 28th out of 30 districts, up from number 10 the previous year. Before then, the district had emerged 29th.

Some Gasabo residents claim that dismal performance by their district when it comes to Imihigo is due to lack of leadership’s commitment to strategic planning, inadequate on-field visits and lack of citizen-leader interactions on development projects.

"It’s from people in villages that leaders can get to understand real issues affecting their lives. There should be close collaboration between people and leaders so that they identify problems of concern so that the projects are designed to suit our needs,” Fabrice Kayinga, a resident of Gatsata Sector, said.

Kayinga, who works in a supermarket in Kacyiru Sector, said he was disappointed that despite all the infrastructure projects in the district, it has continued to lag in performance.

"I think the poor results in terms of performance contracts implementation are due to lack of strategic planning and minimal involvement of people in decision-making and policy implementation,” said Theoneste Rekayabo, another resident. However, he was confident the district would continue to develop and the quality of life for residents will continue to improve.

Delayed taxes

When contacted on Tuesday, Alfred Munyentwali, chairperson of Gasabo District Advisory Council, blamed the poor performance on delays in remittance of taxes that the district uses to implement some of the projects that they pledge to execute over a given financial year.

Most of the taxpayers wait until the deadline to meet their fiscal obligations (on March 31), which is barely three months before entering another fiscal year and evaluating Imihigo.

By this time, some projects are still unfinished, others have not yet started.

"Last year, the construction of the bridge linking Karuruma and Gisozi to ease traffic on Gatuna-Downtown Kigali Road and the project to channel water to Gikomero and Ndera, as well as the construction of Gatsata Sector offices were delayed because of revenue,” he said.

Egide Rugamba, the director of planning, management and evaluation at the Ministry of Local Government (Minaloc), said some districts perform minimally because they set targets that are beyond their reach.

However, he said there are also districts that set easy to achieve Imihigo.

Rugamba said some Imihigo are not implemented as a result of poor planning and follow up by districts and others due to partners who fail to deliver on their set targets.

He cited affordable housing project which Gasabo District had said would be built in Rusororo Sector, which was supposed to start last year but it never kicked off and the district blames the contractor.

The failure of this project, which was to see 200 affordable housing units constructed, was also cited as big discouragement by Willy Ndizeye, the Gasabo mayor.

"The district conceived the project as a means to help people get affordable and decent houses, especially middle-income earners, but the project owner, Valley Site Apartment Company, was conned by the developer, which is the same company that failed to build (the envisioned) Gahanga Stadium,” Ndizeye said.

These houses were to be built together with another 100 units in Kinyinya Sector, through public private partnership.

The mayor said the Kinyinya estate has already kicked off and it is at half completion.

He said some times districts set overambitious targets in their Imihigo which are often very hard to achieve given limited budgets from district own revenue.

However, the mayor added that it is always important to set performance contracts that have considerable positive impact on people’s lives.

He also talked about common perception for immediate and long-term projects, which might differently affect people’s satisfaction for Imihigo performance.

During the last financial year, for the first time, evaluators of Imihigo considered public perception of services delivered by local governments as one of the indicators.

"People often get satisfied with immediate services like offering them public works for direct pay, but they do not understand the significance of long-term projects like Agakiriro (workshop) that Gasabo set up in Gisozi Sector from 2012 to 2014, which is worth over Rwf10 billion,” Ndizeye said.

He said Gasabo citizens actively participate in Imihigo implementation and are involved in setting Imihigo through cell and district councilors.

Way forward

Rugamba said for districts to perform well in Imihigo implementation, they have to start from involving people or communities in setting the targets.

"By so doing, people assume full ownership of what they pledged and strive to achieve the targets. As a result, the district is more likely to deliver on its Imihigo,” he said.

He said this is the approach used by Kicukiro District where people sit with leaders and discuss issues affecting their lives as well as Imihigo to find ways to solve such issues.

Kicukiro has emerged top performer over the past few years.

Pascaline Uwamahoro, a resident of Niboye Sector, Kicukiro District, said minimising bureaucracy and engaging in real on-field work is a key ingredient to development, and, by extension, delivering on Imihigo, as exemplified by her district.

"I could even see the mayor at the road site supervising construction to ensure that it is well built and complete,” she said.

Rugamba said there should be closer collaboration between districts and their partners, as well as various ministries in their respective areas of interventions to ensure effective Imihigo implementation.

He noted that inclusive active participation of people in Imihigo is critical to their implementation.

Ndizeye said Imihigo evaluation helps districts to do self-evaluation. He pledged that Gasabo will have a close and systematic follow-up of Imihigo implementation to identify challenges on time and find ways to surmount them.

The mayor said the district is collaborating well with citizens and partners in Imihigo implementation, adding that all stakeholders should be active enough to ensure that the district delivers on what it pledged in performance contracts.

Imihigo is a practice where an individual sets targets or goals to be achieved within a specific period of time. In 2006, Imihigo were introduced into local government to ensure leadership accountability at all levels.

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