Following the 2009/10 Auditor General’s report, the House’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), over the course of last week, grilled heads of government institutions, procurements officials and budget managers over financial irregularities highlighted in the report.

The events have shown that the Parliament can play an important role in preventing the loss of public funds and should be accorded all the support it needs to accomplish this vital mission.

PAC heard all sorts of explanations that sought to justify the irregularities. 

Some may be genuine while others were deemed to be totally unacceptable.

Internal weaknesses within the finance departments especially lack of trained accountants were some of the fronted excuses.

It is about time we pulled the plug on these inefficiencies.

The Auditor General’s report indicated that unwarranted excuses were used by bureaucrats to flout procurement procedures.

Internal tender committees and the Rwanda Public Procurement authority are in place as a measure to protect and ensure the procurement guidelines are respected.

Demanding accountability, as PAC is doing, is a formidable step in ensuring that management of public resources is done in a transparent and accountable manner.

Procurement officers and their managers should go back to the drawing board and address the serious concerns raised by the Auditor General.

Ministries should come up with mechanisms to hire competent accountants, as well as strive to employ reliable professionals.

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