The new Ombudsperson Madeleine Nirere kicked off her first official duties on Wednesday reminding public service providers that the country’s laws will not tolerate poor and unnecessary prolonged processes that may be loopholes for corruption.

Nirere was speaking at a ceremony to celebrate the international anti-corruption day, the first activity she has presided over since she was sworn in by President Paul Kagame on December 2.

Nirere told the participants that while fighting corruption is not simple, collective efforts can make it possible.

She said that to achieve this, service providers must not only provide good services, they must do so without complicating or delaying the processes.

"This is because by delaying and complicating the process, you are leaving a window for corruption to thrive. We must also teach our general population the value of not paying for services that are supposed to be provided free of charge,” she said.

She called the local population to report anyone who requests a bribe and to provide information on property that has been illegally obtained so that corruption and to pick interest in the laws that protect them.

She encouraged local authorities and other institutions to do periodic in-house self-assessment and correct the areas where any loopholes that may encourage corruption are found.

She warned the perpetrators that the government’s constant changes in the law means that they will eventually be brought to book.

"The political will from the government to fight corruption is evident especially in the laws that have been put in place, for instance where the corruption crime has no statute of limitations, meaning that it does not expire,” she said.

Nirere suggested a shift in strategy, which involves sensitising the youth about the dangers of corruption from a very young age.

Look at both sides

The Chairperson of Transparency International Rwanda, Marie Immaculée Ingabire said that there is a need to look at the issues of corruption from both the one offering and the receiver.

She said that in her institution’s line of work, it has been discovered that the local population offers to pay bribes without solicitation from service providers.

"When we talk to traffic police officers for example, they say that they are many times offered bribes by drivers who are well aware that their papers or vehicles do not fulfil the requirements set by the law. We should not assume that the culprits are only the service providers,” she said.  

Gov’t follow-up

In July this year, the Minister of Justice, Johnston Busingye said that the government is pursuing about Rwf11bn that it hopes to recoup from cases that it won in corruption and public funds mismanagement-related cases.

Busingye, who also doubles as the Attorney General, explained that since 2015, the government has been pursuing around 700 people to refund the money and so far, about Rwf4 billion has been recouped.

"There was a culture and mentality of Rwandans not to feel the need to pay when they owe government. We decided that this cannot go on and compiled a list of all those that owe the government money, the oldest case we have is from 200,” he said.

Speaking to The New Times in a telephone interview recently, Biraro said that prosecuting those responsible for the losses would go a long way in fixing the issues.

"You have to have enforcement. If you have not implemented the Auditor General’s recommendations, what happens to you?  There are rules and if you go against them, you should face the consequences. There is no way out of this other than prosecution. There is no shortcut,” he said.

Biraro said that leadership should come with accountability and those trusted with the task to disburse public funds should be stripped of these responsibilities and tasked to refund the monies they lost.