Some public entities lost court cases in which they were sued by their employees over rights violations, resulting in paying billions of francs over the last five years, the National Public Service Commission report has revealed.

The Commission’s 2021-2022 activity report was presented to Parliament on Thursday, October 27.

While presenting the report, Barnabé Muhire Sebagabo, Acting Chairperson of the Council of Commissioners at the National Public Service Commission said that it carried out an assessment of the loss that the Government incurred because of its entities’ non-compliance with the legislation.

He said, through the analysis, it found that 22 public entities were involved in 73 cases with 101 employees that in 2021-2022, over decisions taken against public servants in contradiction with the legislation.

Those public entities lost 54 cases, accounting for 74 per cent of the total, while they won 19 or 26 per cent of them.

Among the cases that the Government lost, it was ordered (by courts) to pay over Rwf247 million (including damages amounting to over Rwf47 million; and over Rwf200 million for which the workers were entitled to getting even before taking legal actions against it.

For the cases that the Government won, it was given about Rwf11 million consisting of court awards for being dragged into lawsuits by employees over invalid grounds.

Public entities most involved in court cases over the last five years

The report exposed four public entities that were frequently implicated in court cases in the last five years – here those that were involved at least twice were considered.

These are the Water and Sanitation Corporation (WASAC), University of Rwanda, Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), and Karongi District.

Talking about WASAC, the Commission said that cases that this entity was embroiled in begin from the time it was RECO/RWASCO – which include RECO (Rwanda Electricity Corporation) and RWASCO (Rwanda Water and Sanitation Corporation) – and Energy Water and Sanitation Authority (EWSA).

Overall, in the last five years considered, the report showed that WASAC paid over Rwf2 billion to former workers who took legal actions against it in courts over the entity’s failure to give them the benefits they were entitled to.

These include Rwf14 million in 2016/2017; Rwf464 million in 2017-2018; Rwf744 million in 2018-2019, Rwf575 million in 2019-2020, and Rwf221 million in 2020-2021.

The University of Rwanda was involved in cases in four years, out of the last five years assessed, where it paid money amounting to over Rwf139 million in that period.

Other institutions include RRA which was implicated in the civil cases in two years out of the five years considered, and paid over Rwf29 million in the period assessed, according to the report.

Karongi District was also in courts over public service related issues in two years out of the five years in question. Overall, the report indicated, it paid over Rwf7 million.

"In total, the four entities made the Government incur a loss of about Rwf2.2 billion over the last three years considered,” Sebagabo said.

"Some of the recurrent reasons that make the Government lose cases in which it is sued by public workers include employees who were not granted their rights, such as those for whom employers did not pay social security (pension) contributions, those who were not given the salaries provided for by the legislation,” he observed.

Still talking about the underlying factors for this problem, he said that some of the workers were subjected to decisions that are against the law, as well as public entity leaders who do not obey the Commission’s recommendations on the decisions they have taken against the employees.

MP Frank Habineza wanted to know whether there was anything special planned for these entities that have been recurring in the National Public Service Commission’s reports for being associated with cases that cause losses to the Government.

"This is not something that gives a good reputation to these entities,” Habineza said.