Embassies faulted for poor financial reports

The Auditor-General has cited lack of supervision in the expenditure of public finances at Rwandan diplomatic missions across the globe, calling up the missions and the line ministries “to get their acts together.”

Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Obadiah Biraro, Auditor General

The Auditor-General has cited lack of supervision in the expenditure of public finances at Rwandan diplomatic missions across the globe, calling up the missions and the line ministries "to get their acts together.”  In an exclusive interview with The New Times, last week, Obadiah Biraro said avoidable hitch in public financial management is the lack of proper accounting records, which he said the audit for the fiscal year 2011/2012 found lacking in five of the 25 embassies audited. Biraro presented the report to a joint parliamentary session last week. The report noted improvement in the way entities accounted for funds.

He said the line ministry, that is, Foreign Affairs, and the supporting ministry, Finance, do not get returned financial reports for all embassies. "To us, an embassy is a Budget agent. When we say the ministries don’t get financial returns, it is because we don’t see evidence that they got, they analysed, and there was feedback within a year,” he said.

Click here for full interview