Public sector managers should put in place risk management mechanisms to forestall threats and improve business operations, Obadiah Biraro, the Auditor General, has advised.

According to Biraro, most operations are bound to fail if potential risk factors are ignored or detected at a later stage when damage has already been done.

"Any individual in a managerial position must always asses the risks that surround it and impact that may arise from the threats,” he said.

Biraro was last week speaking at a public sector accountability conference on public sector risk management organised by the Ministry of Finance and Economic planning and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Rwanda (iCPAR) to discuss and identify ways to continually optimise public sector risk management practices.

The conference was held under the theme, "Enhancing risk management awareness in Rwanda today to create conditions for success and meet public accountability expectations”.

Biraro cautioned managers and recruiters to pay attention to the type of people they employ to fill certain jobs, arguing that hiring wrong people accumulates the risk pool.

"It should be an effort for top management within organisations to seek suitable employees for any available job openings,” he adds.

"Many organisations put a lot of efforts in analysing the cost of operating a business, but it is important to always endeavour to troubleshoot and investigate any changes in the business operations regularly to detect risks early,” Biraro stressed.

Patrick Uwizeye, the MTN Rwanda general manager, said risk management is important for the public sector, especially as the government is implementing different strategies to spur economic growth, including the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy.

"In order to come up with better strategies, we need to identify or be in position to set limits for the risks and therefore be in position to manage them correctly,” Uwizeye said.

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