PAC: It’s not enough for institutions to admit mistakes

Editor, This isin reference to the story“MPs decry how Rwanda Biomedical Centre is run” (The New Times, July 16). There seems to be a recurrent theme at these PAC hearings or perhaps in the reporting of the hearings. The institution being questioned uses some far-fetched excuse to justify their dismal performance and then go on to admit that there are management issues that are being addressed. Today, RBC says that their biggest issue is an under-staffed board. The role of the board is oversight, so if this is the reason behind their financial mismanagement, it could be safe to say that RBC’s executives who are charged with managing the institution are unable to proactively do their job. They are saying to Rwandans that without oversight, RBC is mad house with no sense of direction. Earlier this week, RSSB claimed that the reason behind the gaps in their balance sheet was the projects that had been taken on without board approval. This was an even more disturbing revelation; executives are playing around with the retirement plans of millions of Rwandans and all they could say for themselves was, ‘we promise to work on our management issues.’ Taking responsibility for your actions is one thing that we have learned but somewhere down the road people have began to believe that if you admit your mistakes, you would be absolved of them. Today we talk about Rwanda Inc., we talk about operating the country like a business, but there is no successful business in the world where management admits to financial mismanagement over and over again without being expected to step down. Concerned Citizen

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PAC: It’s not enough for institutions to admit mistakes