EASTERN PROVINCE

RWAMAGANA- The Mayor of Rwamagana District Valens Ntezirembo, and his two deputies; Alphonsine Murekatete (Social Affairs) and Jean Baptiste Ndanyuzwe (Economic planning), resigned their duties effective yesterday.

The Advisory Council members held an extraordinary meeting, to assess their resignation letters and overwhelmingly endorsed them.

The resignations came after the trio were accused by the council of gross mismanagement resulting into financial loss.

Speaking to The New Times, the Chairman of the District Advisory Council accused the former Mayor of flouting a number of procurement procedures like signing contracts on behalf of the district, an obligation reserved for the Executive Secretary under the law.

 "His silence on Muhazi-Budehe cows’ saga, where the former Executive Secretary was messing up, is questionable. The way he conducted workers’ evaluation, almost alone with few of his cohorts, indicates flaws,” a member of the council said.

According to a district official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Mayor signed a contract with Betex Company to work with Nyamatete Primary school.

He then signed two contracts involving Rwf 32 million and Rwf 36 million, to the same person, the same day on the same project.

The Mayor is also accused of compromising the procurement procedures by offering tenders to a wife of a member of his staff, Valens Uwayezu, the district’s Agricultural Officer.

"The Mayor and the Agricultural Officer infringed article 16 and 17 of the procurement law- conflict of interest confidentiality respectively”.

Ntezirembo was also accused of awarding Emmanuel Higiro a tender to repair Duha-Musha road which was not supposed to be single sourced.

"The law doesn’t allow him to offer a contract beyond Rwf 5 million, but he did”.

The two vice Mayors are accused of incompetence, irresponsibility and being accomplices to their boss.

The officials were also accused of failure to sensitize the people of the district on many government programs hence derailing the general development of Rwamagana district.

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