KIGALI - The Government is committed to continue promoting and achieving good governance as the first pillar of the country’s Vision 2020 through its medium and long term policies and practices.

This was said Tuesday  by the Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, while opening a two-day seminar on Governance aimed at assessing the 2009 Global Integrity Report on Rwanda which opened in Kigali.

Addressing the meet organised by Rwanda Governance Advisory Council (RGAC) in collaboration with Global Integrity, Musoni said that the government has a common goal of promoting good governance through enhancing civil liberties, political rights, voice and accountability, transparency and the fight against corruption.

"For the past few years, Rwanda has steadily improved in governance and I am certain that evidence speaks for itself,” Musoni said.

The Minister added that the country has dedicated a lot of efforts towards reconstruction of the nation and its social capital anchored on good governance, underpinned by a capable state alongside the other Vision 2020 pillars.

"This conviction is shown in several institutions we have started and supported, including the Ombudsman’s office, the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Auditor General’s office which oversee compliance, respecting and observing government policies, rules on corruption and accountability,” Musoni noted.

He added that the country will continue supporting institutions like the RGAC whose mandate is to network with other expert institutions on the globe to promote and monitor good governance.

According to Prof. Anastase Shyaka, the Executive Secretary of RGAC, the meeting aimed at identifying mechanisms of how to use the findings of the Global Integrity Report on Rwanda to impact on governance.

"In general, Rwanda performed well with a score of over 70 percent---particularly excelling in 3 of the 6 areas that the report covered, including the categories of anti-corruption, oversight and regulation and administration and regulation.” Shyaka said.

He however noted that the report highlights some areas where improvement is needed, which includes access to public information and accountability.

Global Integrity which included Rwanda for the first time in its 2009 report, ranked the country on several indicators, among them, Civil Society Organizations (CSO), Media and Public Information where the country scored 63%.

On the elections sub-indicators, the country scored 83%. On Administration and Regulation Rwanda scored 80%, 88% on Oversight and regulation and 81% on Anti-Corruption.

"Rwanda showed very interesting trends and it is very encouraging though there are some areas where improvements need to be made but all in all, significant reforms have been made in the area of governance particularly dealing with corruption,” said the Nathaniel Heller, the Managing Director of Global Integrity.

He added that Global Integrity, one of the leading international non-profit organisations which track governance and corruption trends around the world will continue assessing Rwanda. The research is done in collaboration with Legatum Institute.

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