THE MAYOR of the south-western district of Rusizi, Oscar Nzeyimana, and four of his co-accused have been denied bail and sent on remand for 30 days.

Five officials of the district are on trial over counterfeiting documents related to the community-based insurance, Mutuelle de Sante.

Nzeyimana’s co-accused include his former deputy for social affairs Basile Bayihiki, the director of health, Emmanuel Ndamuzeye, Juliette Muhawenimana, in-charge of community mobilization and Nzayituriki Theoneste, head of Mutuelle at Gihundwe Hospital.

Prosecution alleges the officials, acting on orders from Nzeyimana, inflated mutuelle subscribers’ figures from 69 to 77.5 per cent to get better score in the evaluation of performance contracts, Imihigo.

Prosecution alleges that the leaders knowingly issued documents containing materially incorrect facts, falsified and modified original official documents in their interests and knowingly used inaccurate and falsified documents in their work. This, prosecution says, constitutes a crime that is punishable under the Rwandan law.

On Friday, four of the accused were remanded for 30 days to allow time for further investigations. Only Muhawenimana got bail because she is pregnant.

If convicted, they face up to five years in jail.

The defendants acknowledged doctoring the figures, but denied criminal intentions saying the issue is simply "administrative mistakes” that can be rectified.

The case was brought against the five following a recent audit commissioned by the Western Province which exposed inconsistencies between Mutuelle beneficiaries and the total premiums.

The audit also raised fears that subscriptions paid by members of the scheme in the districts of Rusizi, Nyamasheke and Karongi may have been mismanaged.

Auditors and investigators found out that the three districts were highly indebted to local hospitals and health centres, something that has undermined operations of the affected health institutions.

Rusizi and Nyamasheke recorded around Rwf700 million each, while Karongi recorded between Rwf300 million and Rwf400 million in Mutuelle arrears.

Since then, the mayors of the three districts and other top officials have been arrested in relation to the malpractices.

On Thursday, it emerged that Nzeyimana and his deputy, Bayihiki, had written to the District Advisory Council to tender their resignations.

Karongi Mayor Bernard Kayumba and that of Nyamasheke, Jean Baptiste Habyarimana, resigned days before they were detained.

Meanwhile Police on Friday arrested the Executive Secretary of Bugarama Sector in Rusizi District on allegations of embezzling money meant for the Vision 2020 Umurenge programme, a government scheme that seeks to create jobs and support the most vulnerable. Viateur Nduwayo was by press time detained at Kamembe police station.