The plenary assembly of the chamber of deputies on Wednesday, July 28, adopted a special law governing declaration of assets by public officers.

To date, asset declaration is governed by the law determining the responsibilities, powers, organisation and functioning of the Office of the Ombudsman.

When the new legislation is promulgated, all of these functions related to asset declaration will be governed by the special law.

The existing law as it is has loopholes because it does not prescribe any measures to be taken against a public officer who has failed to declare their assets, among other factors.

So, how will the new law cover these loopholes?

Abbas Mukama, the Deputy Ombudsman in charge of fighting corruption highlighted that the law needed to be put in place because the existing one lacked a number of provisions.

The missing provisions included one of inspecting the source of funds for political parties.

"With the new law, we are able to inspect political parties and issue them with a warning in case they fail to declare their assets, when they do not comply, we may ask the senate to ban the political party for a period of a year,” said Mukama.

Mukama added that another new element is the addition of the sectors and cell executive secretaries among people who should declare their assets as they are among the public servants who are more susceptible to corruption.

The law also outlines penalties for those who have failed to declare assets.

"If someone has failed or partially declared their assets in the seven days after being notified, they will be punished with a suspension of one month without pay. If they do not comply, they will be suspended for three months without pay, and asked to declare their assets in seven days since the day of notification,” reads the provision in part.

In case they don’t adhere, their case will be handed to the investigation authorities for further management, according to the special law.

In its current form, the law only asks the Ombudsman to remind such officials about their obligation to declare their wealth but no punitive measures are prescribed for those who do not heed.

According to Collette Ndabarushimana, the policy and legal coordinator of Transparency International-Rwanda, an anti-corruption watchdog, the new legislation will also address some misunderstandings that were experienced during asset declaration.

"All assets are declared not later than June 30 every year and to be declared are the types, quantity, location, origin and value of the assets,” she said, adding that all these benchmarks were not clearly specified.

In addition, she continues, donations are also declared in twelve months after receiving them and assets of the officials’ spouses and children over 18 years of age are also a subject to declaration.

Ndabarushimana bases on this and explains that the new law comes to strengthen the asset declaration process.

"The process will have more impact because it is fully detailed and the violators will know they are against an autonomous law, not just provisions that were included in the institution of the Office of the Ombudsman,” noted Ndabarushimana, who said she was among the people who drafted the legislation.

Evariste Murwanashyaka, the programmes manager at CLADHO, the umbrella body of Human Rights Organisations in Rwanda commended this new law, which he said will give a significant impetus to the fight against corruption.

"As it is now clear and more detailed. People will get to know it and fear committing such crimes because they will know the consequences of engaging in such vices,” he told The New Times.

Last year, over 40 out of 14,650 officials who had to declare their wealth did not do so, according to statistics from the Office of the Ombudsman.

Who declares wealth?

Besides the two categories of leaders, others who are asked to declare wealth are;

High ranking leaders; senior officials, senior officers of Rwanda Defence Force, Rwanda National Police, or Rwanda Correctional Service; those working in statutory authorities, and judges and other judicial personnel.

Others are prosecutors and their assistants, investigators, political organisations, public servants involved in public finance and State property, employees of the Office of the Ombudsman and public notaries.

According to the law, any other category of public officers may be determined by a ministerial order.