Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has been faulted for breaching the rules governing the recruitment of public servants. The criticism came from parliamentarians yesterday as RDB officials appeared before the parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Affairs to respond to some of the issues raised in the Public Service Commission (PSC) annual report, 2015-2016.

The report indicated that RDB had been employing staff who had not taken oath of office as required by law and that some employees were promoted to higher positions without doing any interviews.

"The law governing the management of public employees indicates that all new employees should take the oath before assuming public office. How then do you put people in positions without swearing them in as required by the law?” Alphonsine Mukarugema, vice chairperson of committee asked the RDB officials.

She also faulted RDB for employing some staff who had not provided criminal record certificate and other documents as required under the law.

MP Gaston Rwaka said the Public Service Commission report indicated that some R DB employees were also promoted in a manner that contravened the law governing recruitment of public servants.

Mark Nkurunziza, the chief financial officer at RDB, who represented chief executive Claire Akamanzi, acknowledged the anomalies and committed that they would take corrective action.

"We have some of our employees who did not take the oath, but I want to assure you that before December 15, 2017, this issue will be well resolved and addressed as the law requires.”

He also promised that other anomalies such as the fact that some employees had not submitted criminal record certificate, among other relevant documents, prior to recruitment would also be addressed before the end of the year.

He, however, said that some employees had been promoted without doing interviews in the spirit of retaining outstanding personnel.

"As you know, in 2014-2015, there was restructuring in different government institutions, at the time RDB board advised us on how we could retain some of our talented staff, we decided to promote some of them. We also told them (employees) to expect evaluation of their performance after one year,” Nkurunziza said.

The MPs were, however, not satisfied with the explanations provided by the RDB officials present and decided to summon the CEO, Akamanzi, to another session come Tuesday next week.

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