The Ministry of Local Government, (MINALOC) has undertaken to improve the quality of services delivered in local government institutions.

The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Cyrille Turatsinze, made the pledge during an interview with The New Times.

This follows a recent governance scorecard released by Rwanda Governance Advisory Council (RGAC), which indicates that the quality of service delivery at the local government level scored 66.21 percent is still wanting.

According to the scorecard, the rule of law in local government is at 67.71 percent, while security registered 87.26 percent. Business promotion and private sector advocacy is currently at 81.0 percent.

Turatsinze noted that the ministry had completed induction courses on strategic planning among the new local government staff who were elected during the just concluded local government elections.

He said that they have also trained district mayors in several issues concerning leadership development skills to enable them to clearly understand their respective responsibilities.

Turatsinze said that similar trainings would be organised for provincial governors and other local government leaders to ensure improvement in the quality of service.

 "This year, the ministry will carry out several training workshops among local leaders, from the cell to the district level, and this is aimed at enabling them to have a shared vision on how best they can promote their performance, especially in terms of service delivery,” Turatsinze said.

He also noted that they plan to organise training workshops on public financial management and human resource management for district employees in order to avoid cases of embezzlement of public funds within the local government structure.

Turatsinze pointed out that MINALOC would also carry out a-five-year local government capacity building plan which intends to empower local government staff in the areas of planning, monitoring and evaluation.

He added that the ministry is in the process of reviewing various laws governing the local government institutions saying that this is aimed at putting in place laws which are service oriented in all aspects of life.

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary said that the ministry would, before the end of this month, distribute about 800 computers to cells across the country to facilitate grassroots leaders to submit their reports on time.

The ministry will also increase the number of employees at the sector and cell levels to strengthen economic development and service delivery.

Ends