The Office of Ombudsman has said that it is putting more efforts in the establishment and functioning of anti-corruption committees in a bid to stem graft in a more effective way, with focus on prevention.
It made the observations on Friday, November 26, 2021, during a press conference, held in Kigali, on preparations for celebrating International Anti-Corruption day on December 9, 2021.
Talking about the anticipated impact from those committees, the Ombudsman, Madeleine Nirere said that they are expected to improve the internal management of entities, which include finance management and the fulfillment of their responsibilities.
"The committees will tackle all the loopholes that hinder good service delivery. For instance, if a resident seeks a service from a given institution but it delays to offer it to them, that can be a loophole for corruption,” she said.
She pointed out that they are in line with the implementation of the law on fighting against corruption which was enacted in 2018
Corruption has been reported in a number of publications including the reports of Transparency International Rwanda’s Bribery Indexes.
Transparency International Rwanda’s 2020 Bribery Index released in January 2021, indicated that soliciting a bribe from those seeking a construction permit came at the top, scoring 61 percent in 2020 compared to 33.8 percent in 2019.
Even, corruption has been found in cases tried in courts, sometimes resulting from corrupt judges – which can make the affected citizens lose confidence in the judiciary; and in public service recruitment.
Nirere said that Rwanda ranks 4th in Africa and first country in East African Community in combating corruption, and this was a result of the country’s zero-tolerance to corruption policy. But, she said that a lot needs to be done for the country to eradicate this vice.
She said that the anti-corruption committees are planned for in all institutions, including public, private, and international organisations operating in Rwanda. She indicated that such a committee comprises between three to five members.
However, she explained that officials in charge of finance, budget, and procurement in those institutions are not eligible for membership in those committees, indicating that they might hinder the evaluation of acts or practices involving them.
Those committees will be reporting to the institutions in which they are employed, but they will also be submitting reports of their findings to the office of the Ombudsman every six months, in order to assess the implementation of efforts to tackle corruption, Nirere said.
"What we are doing is to train the members of the already established committees, and to ensure that they are set up in entities which do not yet have them,” she said.
Abbas Mukama, Deputy Ombudsman in charge of Preventing and Fighting Corruption said that the committees will consider different all types of corruption including sexual favors, acquaintances, and nepotism.
Then, they will give a related report to the manager, such as the DG, of the institution in question.
"If the DG of the institution does not want to take decisions, thy [committees] denounce the Office of the Ombudsman through the report they submit to it every six months,” he said, supposing that a DG might be implicated in misdeeds.
"In case the committee members are done injustice such as being dismissed for exposing corruption in the institution, the Office of Ombudsman will help them receive justice,” he said, adding that they were given power as the informants of the public by the legislation.
So far, 80 entities have established anti-corruption committees, according to data from the Officine of the Ombudsman. It said that the principle was to have all entities get such committees by the end of this year.
Some activities planned within the week-long campaign
In line with the preparations to celebrate the International Anti-Corruption, the Office of the Ombudsman is organising a week-long campaign against corruption, from November 28 to December 09, 2021, under the theme "Eradicating corruption to achieve sustainable development”.
Activities to be carried out during this period include talk shows on Rwanda Television – connecting to other radios – on December 4, 2021. They will be held under the theme of "Strategies which were established by the Government of Rwanda in preventing and fighting corruption as well as asset recovery based on convicts of corruption”
Also, there will be a dialogue on fighting corruption in construction services on December 6, 2021, with the theme of "Risks of corruption in construction services, its causes and strategies to prevent and fight it.”
On December 8, 2021, there will be a dialogue on fighting corruption in public procurement. The theme of the dialogue will be "The role of the Justice Sector in preventing and fighting corruption in public procurement and payments of executed tenders”.