GATSIBO – Gatsibo District leaders have vowed to thoroughly investigate and uncover the truth behind the misuse of a total of Rwf110 million as recently highlighted in the Auditor General’s report. Last week, the Auditor General, Obadiah Biraro, released a report in Parliament, in which he detailed a case in the district where Rwf 110 million earmarked for the education sector, was withdrawn from the Education account and transferred to the district operational bank account, without the approval of the District Advisory Council.
GATSIBO – Gatsibo District leaders have vowed to thoroughly investigate and uncover the truth behind the misuse of a total of Rwf110 million as recently highlighted in the Auditor General’s report.
Last week, the Auditor General, Obadiah Biraro, released a report in Parliament, in which he detailed a case in the district where Rwf 110 million earmarked for the education sector, was withdrawn from the Education account and transferred to the district operational bank account, without the approval of the District Advisory Council.
According to AG’s report, there were no efforts by the district to establish what the funds were utilised for after they were deposited on the operational account as they did not have any support documents.
While presenting the 2009/2010 report to Parliament, Biraro said that district officials claimed that some of the funds were utilised for school construction but no documentation was provided to justify the claim.
In an interview with The New Times, Gatsibo District mayor, Ambrose Ruboneza, confirmed reports from the AG’s office, but hastened to add that the district was considering to institute a special inquiry to ascertain if the funds were misused or not.
"Though it happened before I was elected the mayor, I am going to set up a special team to probe how the funds were used,” he said."We are aware that people who were at the district’s helm are still around. We shall summon them to explain how the funds were allocated.”
Innocent Munyaneza, the District Advisory Council president, said that they were shocked to learn that the money was withdrawn from the Education account without their (council’s) consent.
"We recently replaced all the advisory committee members but we are now working tirelessly to find out how the funds were diverted,” Munyaneza said.
Stephen Mpakaniye, a resident of Kiziguro Sector,, regretted that their district featured in the AG’s report.
"It shocked me to hear that of all the districts in the province, our district exhibited this bad image. But we are optimistic that the new leadership is going to clear it,” he said.
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