WESTERN PROVINCE KARONGI — Three districts in the Western Province have been awarded trophies after an assessment on their performance, after the second quarter of 2008 performance contracts. Rutsiro District emerged the best with 78.78% followed by Nyamasheke and Rubavu. Rusizi came in the fourth position, Nyabihu fifth, Karongi sixth while Ngororero trailed. During the function, all the seven area districts presented their 2008 second phase of performance contracts before several government officials that included ministers. On behalf of the Prime Minister, Bernard Makuza, the Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Dr. Charles Murigande, who presided of the function in Karongi, asked Mayors to speed up performance contracts in order to achieve Vision 2020 goals earlier. Murigande commended districts leaders for the achievements in the second quarter. He urged them to speed up the next phase, saying it would be shorter due to country’s programme of harmonising programmes to suit those of other East African community members. The minister reminded the leaders that the 2009 national budget would be divided into two, including the mini budget that was presented before Parliament last week. This, he said, calls for expedition of activities before beginning of the next fiscal year. “The 2009 performance contracts will need to be implemented in a very short timeframe,” he said. The performance contracts presented at the meeting highlighted four major pillars that included Good governance, Justice, Economy and Welfare. On economy, area districts committed to focus on coffee and tea growing. Nyamasheke and Rutsiro highlighted efforts that were made to improve on the quality of coffee which has increased the farmers’ earnings. Other areas of improvement include speeding up Gacaca trials, forming anti-genocide ideology clubs in schools, mobilising residents to join health insurance schemes and encouraging them to adopt family planning. Edward Nkurayija, the Executive Secretary of the Western Province, who presented the performance grades, thanked all districts for their achievements, noting that there was a remarkable improvement. He observed there is a hope that sustainable development will be achieved if they continue working at the same pace. Present at the function included Ministers, Protais Musoni for Local Government, Christophe Bazivamo of Agriculture, Stanislas Kamanzi, Natural Resources, and the Minister of Sports and Culture, Joseph Habineza. Ends
