The Waterand Sanitation Corporation Ltd (Wasac) has developed a billing system that will be integrated with the management information system in use. The new measure, officials hope, will help curb financial and administrative shortcomings and ensure accountability at the utility regulator. Wasac chief executive James Sano said the development will help avoid shortcomings and cases of mismanagement that were highlighted in the 2012/13 Auditor-General’s report that faulted the defunct Energy Sanitation and Water Authority (EWSA) for various financial impropriety issues. Sano was speaking at a media conference in Kigali yesterday. In his 2013/2014 report tabled before Parliament in May, Auditor-General Obadiah Biraro gave the now defunct EWSA a ‘disclaimer opinion’ because of gross mismanagement as discovered during the auditing exercise. EWSA was in July split under the Prime Minister’s orders – which also outlined modalities of transfer of responsibilities and property of the public institution to corporations. The two corporations that emerged from the split are Rwanda Energy Group, which owns Energy Development Company Ltd and Energy Utility Company Ltd that manage energy production and energy maintenance, respectively, and Wasac, which is mandated to manage water and sanitation resources. Sano said the corporation would also pursue accountability by values they were establishing amongst their staff such as professionalism and integrity. Achieving target He said the corporation was formed with an intention to create a company with the structure that ensures quick and focused execution of government policy to achieve government target defined in the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy, and Vision 2020. “Among others, we have to be financially sustainable, this will be possible by reducing operational costs, proper use of resources and making return all the while ensuring that we are delivering quality services to clients,” Sano said. The agency comes in when the city grapples with water demand above what the corporation can supply, forcing the utility agency to employ a rationing schedule so as to ensure all areas at least have water on select days. Currently, the production capacity is at about 70,000 cubic metres of water against a demand of an estimated 120,000 cubic metres of water daily. Sano said they hope to meet the deficit in the coming months by tendering an investment to produce and maintain a 40,000 cubic metres daily, which will go a long way to meet the current demand.
