The Office of the Ombudsman has organised training workshops for different categories of civil servants across the 30 districts of the country.

The four-day training covers functioning and the powers of the Office of the Ombudsman; loopholes in corruption fight, consequences, and the role of trainees in preventing and fighting corruption and other related offences.

Trainees include good governance officers in districts; two Traffic Police officers; civil and notary officers; accountants at the sector level; tax collection officers in the sector; youth representatives in the districts, women representatives and representatives of cooperatives at sectors.

At the opening of the training for Nyarugenge District, yesterday, participants were urged to take the first initiative to prevent and fight corruption in order to ensure the country’s sustainable development.

The training took place at Nyarugenge District headquarters.

Active in graft fight

According to Cecile Mugeni, a trainer from the Office of the Ombudsman, the training would help participants get to know more about the dangers of corruption so that they can prevent it.

"We organised this session so that we can explain to all different categories of civil servants the consequences of corruption and how they can play their role to fight anything that can lead to corruption,” Mugeni said.

"We want them to take part in establishing strategic and strict measures to prevent corruption and other related offences, but also be aware of the powers and functioning of the Office of the Ombudsman.”

She added that levels of corruption in the country aren’t high but all Rwandans should understand that corruption hinders development.

Christopher Gacenderi, a trainee from Mageragere Sector, said it was important to learn about the newly established functions and powers of the Ombudsman’s office and draw strategies to prevent and fight corruption.

"It’s crucial for the administrative civil servants to know this, since they are the ones that meet with a lot of such cases of corruption,” he said.

Trainees were briefed on several manifestations of corruption.

The latest East African Bribery Index ranked Rwanda as the least corrupt country in the region.

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