The Minister of Infrastructure, Albert Nsengiyumva, has tabled before parliament, a proposed amendment of the law determining the procedure for disposal of state private assets.

The law was first enacted in 2008 and according to the minister, during implementation, it turned out that some elements needed to be amended.

"To ensure proper management of state assets, we found it necessary to propose amending some part of the law,” the Minister said.

"There are State properties that the government no longer uses but can be exploited by other people; we need to have a proper way of giving out these properties.”

Article 6, paragraph one, of the 2008  law determining the procedure for disposal of state private assets provides for an establishment of an inventory each year, by public institutions, of assets to be disposed off.

The list should indicate the condition and value of the assets to be disposed off.

Such a list should be prepared within the same period as the annual budget and transmitted to the institution’s line minister and the ministers in charge of Finance and Infrastructure

However, this provision is not clear enough to facilitate implementation, according to Nsengiyumva.

In fact, he says, it doesn’t show who among three ministers should forward the list to the cabinet for approval. It doesn’t also show what kind of assets must be approved by the cabinet.

This is why an amendment law has been prepared, to streamline these inconsistencies.

The proposed legislation indicates that all public entities shall, each year, transmit the list of private state fixed assets to the cabinet through the minister in charge of public finance.

"The adoption of the draft law should be ready for implementation when government institutions start to prepare lists of assets for disposal for next financial year,” Nsengiyumva proposed.

edwin.musoni@newtimes.co.rw