KIGALI - In an effort to combat corruption, the Office of Ombudsman, together with Transparency Rwanda, on Thursday, awarded districts that emerged the excelled in fighting graft.

Nyabihu District was crowned first after collecting 91 points, followed by Gisagara with 90 and  Nyamasheke with 89.

Meanwhile, Rutsiro and Kayonza Districts were cited as having numerous corruption cases. Each collected only 43 points.

According to the office of the Ombudsman, the good governance assessment was based on leadership, inspection, tendering procedures and wealth declaration.
The districts also had to present all their budget reports on various activities for thorough scrutiny.

Speaking at the awarding ceremony, the Ombudsman, Tito Rutaremera, said Nyabihu District was recognized due to its innovations to fight corruption.

"Nyabihu’s local leaders have to take a special oath of no-corruption before their residents and have set up a toll free line for whistleblowers to report any corruption case,” said Rutaremera.

The top performers were also awarded cash prizes Nyabihu got Rwf1.3 million, Gisagara and Nyamasheke went away with Rwf1 million and Rwf700, 000 respectively.

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