Minister condemns too much bureaucracy
Monday, August 13, 2007

The minister of state in charge of Industry and Investment Promotion Vincent Karega has condemned government officials who are still attached to bureaucracy that slows down work. He said this was affecting development and success of various projects, thus a hindrance to economic development.

Karega said this at Serena Hotel Gisenyi while officially opening a recent two-day retreat that brought together workers from the ministry of Commerce, Industry, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Cooperatives, and various NGOs  that work closely with the ministry.

He called upon all Rwandans especially those responsible government officials who take part in decision making and signing of various documents to always act fast especially in documents  that deal with important projects like trade and investment promotion.  

"Trade is one of the biggest factors in every country’s development, and successful trade cannot be achieved with incompetent people. We need flexible and hard working personnel to facilitate such activities,” he said, adding that many officials delayed various activities by sending documents through many unnecessary procedures, which he said was affecting development. "Why do some officials receive and keep documents for a long time? This is a bad habit which should be stopped,” he charged.

Francis Rutebuka, one of  the officials from the ministry and a participant at the retreat had this to say: "This retreat will give us time to sit together as officials from the ministry of Commerce, Industry, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Cooperatives to discuss our achievements and failures which I hope will help us find solutions to avoid the same mistakes in future,” he said.

 Ends