Top leaders call for tougher measures to fight corruption

Top leaders in the country have called for stiffer measures in the fight against corruption. The country’s cabinet ministers, legislators, governors, district mayors, and members of the civil society made the call yesterday after meeting at the Senate in Kigali. The session was about examining the extent of corruption in the country and devising measures against the vice. Xavier Mbarubukeye, Permanent Secretary, Office of the Ombudsman, chats with Ingabire, president of Transparency International Rwanda. The meeting was organised by the Senate’s standing committee on political affairs and good governance and addressed such issues as the prevalent forms of corruption in the country, gaps in fighting corruption, as well as what officials and institutions can do better to better fight the vice. According to the Senate president, Bernard Makuza, Rwandans can’t afford to lose the war on corruption and yet they have been able to fight bad policies in the country such as ethnic based discrimination which led to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. “With determination, Rwandans were able to overcome the genocidaires; we can do the same in the fight against corruption. All we need is to be driven by the will to fight and defeat evil,” he said. Marie Immaculée Ingabire,(L) president of Transparency International Rwanda presents corruption cases in Rwanda during a panel with Senator Chrysologue Karangwa (C )and the Auditor General Obadiah Biraro yesterday at the senate hall during a meeting on how to fight corruption. Rwanda is among the least corrupt countries in the world, with Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), ranking the country among Africa’s five least corrupt nations. Government also maintains an anti-corruption stance, with 97.3 per cent of Rwandans expressing confidence in the government’s efforts to fight corruption, according to the 2014 Rwanda Bribery Index by Transparency International Rwanda chapter. But talking about different forms of corruption during yesterday’s meeting, panelists cited the justice sector, the public procurement sector, issuance of construction permits, expropriation, and the recruitment process for jobs among the major areas where corruption is still rampant in the country. The chairperson of Transparency International Rwanda, Marie Immaculée Ingabire, deplored the growing pattern of local officials and public servants who lose focus on the fight against corruption. A number of members of parliament and cabinet ministers attended the meeting on how to fight corruption that was held yesterday at the Senate hall. “There is a political will to fight corruption at the top level of government but that will shrinks the more you move to the grassroots,” she said. Senator Marie Claire Mukasine, the chair of Rwanda’s chapter of the African Parliamentarian’s Network against Corruption (APNAC), said the country has what it takes to fight corruption when it comes to the legal framework and the political will. She called for the execution of the country’s laws against corruption as well as streamlining public education initiatives against the vice. L-R Auditor General Obadiah Biraro exchanges ideas with Augustus Seminega the Director General of the Rwanda Public Procurement Authority (RPPA). (All photos by Doreen Umutesi) “We have the right environment, the legal framework and the institutions to tackle graft, but we the people need to have the discipline to fight corruption,” she said. Among the resolutions that officials and members of the civil society drew include teaching young Rwandans about the ills of corruption, enhancing communication between institutions in the fight against the vice, enforcement of assets recovery laws, and improving the work of internal auditors at different government institutions. It was agreed that the Senate’s standing committee on political affairs and good governance will make follow-ups to check the implementation of the resolutions at different levels of government. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Top leaders call for tougher measures to fight corruption