PARLIAMENT - Members of both chambers of Parliament greeted this week’s damning revelations contained in the 2006 Auditor General’s report with dismay.

AG Evelyn Kamagaju on Monday presented the report before both senators and deputies and returned to the House on Tuesday to respond questions from legislators.

The report, released eight months behind schedule, indicates that at least Frw5.3 billion was unaccounted for during the fiscal year 2006, while the audited institutions awarded tenders worth Frw3.8 billion without the approval of the National Tender Board (NTB).

The report further shows that tenders valued at over Frw7.8 billion were sanctioned without proof that they were approved by internal tender committees.

Kamagaju said that a number of institutions lacked financial statements to justify their expenditures.

After Kamagaju gave chilling details of how taxpayers’ money was being mismanaged or plainly embezzled by public officials, the lawmakers seemed frustrated that despite the AG’s persistent disclosures and their own remedial recommendations, the problem remains as serious as it was some years back.

"The culture of impunity should stop; this audit should be the basis for Government to punish all those that were involved in financial irregularities," Senator Rwigamba Balinda said.

Added Deputy Juvenal Nkusi: "It is a big problem that is seriously affecting the performance of public institutions, and if it is not dealt with immediately, it might slow down our (country’s) development programmes."

The legislators were united in stating that although some measures had been taken to improve the management of public finances, there is no evidence that things were improving practically.

They observed that previous AG reports pointed at the same problems, concluding that the irregularities had just become repetitive.

Just like the AG reports of 2003, 2004 and 2005 showed, the new report indicated that most of the missing money was lost through illegal tendering procedures, improper financial records, lack of coordination and mismanagement of public assets.

Previous AG reports indicated that about Frw 4.4 billion and Frw3.6 billion was uncounted for in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

This means that the amount of public finances the AG could not ascertain how it was spent increased in 2006 although many had expected an improvement since corrective measures had presumably been taken.

Now the phenomenon has attracted the attention of MPs, who said it was time to take concrete action.

"As lawmakers we have a big role in stopping all these irregularities," a seemingly concerned MP Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi, said on Tuesday.

For Mp Agnes Mukazibera, such gross mismanagement and embezzlement cases should be blamed on reluctance of relevant government officials that are supposed to supervise their subordinates.

She said some government institutions did not make follow-ups on many programmes during the implementation process, adding that such irresponsibility should not go unpunished.

"The increase in mismanagement should be cracked down through the Prosecutor General’s Office," she suggested.

Gatabazi said public offices should not be used as a den for thieves. "We must all cooperate in exposing such characters and to ensure that the law takes its course."

Some MPs attributed the problem to the existence of some money-hungry public servants who handle public funds.

They said such officials feign ignorance as to the need of keeping books of accounts.

The report cited several misappropriation cases such as Frw77 million which was embezzled in the forest conservation project (PAFOR), which operates under the Ministry of Agriculture.

Other institutions where huge sums of money were embezzled, according to the AG report, include the Students’ Financing Agency for Rwanda (SFAR) where an accountant vanished with over Frw96 million, only to deposit part of it (Frw20m) on the bank account of SFAR boss Emmanuel Muvunyi.

AG Kamagaju also told the legislators that another Frw26.7m was embezzled in University Hospital of Kigali (CHU/K).

She partly attributed most of those cases to continued lack of the required auditing an accounting capacity to carry out proper bookkeeping and auditing.

She also pointed at the situation where jobs that are normally supposed to be done by several people as a way of preventing embezzlement are done by one person, which provides loopholes for misappropriation.

The report further says that public fixed assets such as houses and land were not well managed.

The AG said the Ministry of Infrastructure lacked close supervision of public fixed assets and has no proper documents for some.

For instance, in Rubavu District, only nine buildings out of 69 had supporting documents, according to the report.

Kamagaju also said that some lecturers at the School of Finance and Banking (SFB) quit their jobs with vehicles whose loans they had not serviced.

She said the vehicles were registered in those people’s names, making it difficult for the government to recover them.

She also said that an extra Frw347 million was given to the constructors of Kibagabaga hospital in Gasabo District, Kigali City, on top of the amount that had officially been agreed upon earlier.

After the two-day debate, the House forwarded the report to the Chamber of Deputies’ Standing Committee on Budgetary affairs, where it will undergo intense scrutiny.

Ends