Public accountability improving, says PAC

There has been notable improvement in public finance management over the past five years as public institutions are recording clean audit reports, according to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC). This emerged as the parliamentary oversight committee tabled a consolidated report on implementation of parliamentary resolutions to the executive with respect to findings of the past Auditor-General’s reports since 2009. Submitting the findings, PAC chairperson Juvenal Nkusi, hailed the remarkable progress in the financial management but pointed out the sluggish recovery process of mismanaged funds and new forms of public embezzlement. “Out of 93 resolutions, we proposed since 2009, 84 of them were observed fully which is way beyond 80 percent of the achievements, which we consider to be a remarkable progress, but the remaining resolutions should be addressed in shortest time possible,” Nkusi said. MP Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi makes remarks on the PAC report in Parliament during a plenary session yesterday. The report, tabled before the Plenary yesterday, captures several aspects, including recovery programmes on students’ loan schemes, projects value for money on public enterprises and management of the funds at public institutions. According to the report, misposting errors have significantly reduced, following training and capacity building initiatives. Although, in public tenders mistakes that accounted for 26 per cent there have reductions reduced to 17 per cent. “We have also seen that on tenders worth more than Rwf500 million, the government, through Justice Ministry, has been doing a credible intervention which can be lauded and that issues of long overdue arrears and debts owed to Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), and banks in general have also reduced,” Nkusi said. However, Nkusi said government heavily funded projects are still haunted by poor planning, poor implementation, heavy losses and delays in implementation despite some noted commitment by budget agencies. “Specifically, the recovery programmes on student loan scheme are promising after a new law was voted to salvage the situation. At least there is a positive spirit towards having clean audit reports by these budget agencies,” the PAC chair added. Outlining the recommendations, the committee’s deputy chairperson, Théoneste Karenzi, urged government to ensure improvement on follow ups with regards to resolutions given and the timeframe. “There is a need to make sure deadlines are met within its institutions, and that the remaining resolutions on all those reports must have been addressed in the next six months,” he said. Lawmakers said more achievements can be made mostly on clean financial audit reports and enforcement of capacity building mainly on internal auditors of budget agencies. Member of Parliment Nura Nikuze asks for clarification on some details regarding the PACs report. (Photos by Doreen Umutesi) MP Nura Nikuze said there is a big responsibility and independency vacuum between internal auditors and auditors at the office of the auditor general which can be addressed through a regular collaboration. “It seems internal auditors do not work closely with the AG, a close monitoring process and improvement in skills development is also required,” she said. In response, MP Nkusi said although there was a need to clear the backlog of resolutions in the past five years, things might be different in the coming years. “For internal auditors, there is courage to file audit reports, but then these people have come from far; earlier they were not even independent and they used to work under fear of their superiors,” he added. Nkusi attributed the ongoing progress to decentralisation process that enabled internal auditors to report to a commission comprising all executives at the district level, for example, and councils of representatives. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Public accountability improving, says PAC