Re: Justice ministry toughens stance on delayed and abandoned projects (The New Times May 17) Editor, The joint discussion paper by Office of the Auditor General of Canada and Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada defines five principles of effective accountability. The same five are alluded to by the World Bank report on PFM reform guidelines. These principles include clear definition of roles, clear performance expectations, balancing expectations and capacities, credible reporting and reasonable review and adjustment. To address persistent issues within an organisation, fair consideration of the five principles should be made. But investing in relevant capacities will always be an ongoing investment given that other factors will never remain constant. And some of these factors include staff turnover, organisational restructuring that brings other dynamics into performance and low compensation schemes for the skilled human capital. That 98 projects worth Rwf95.67 billion delayed or abandoned? This is very sad indeed. How could someone abandon or delay a project when they signed a contract, a legally binding contract? Aren’t there some legal actions to be taken against those people to teach them a lesson? Those projects are the drivers of economy. With infrastructure built, more economic activity and thus better overall economic performance. Furthermore, 98 projects would have provided people with jobs and thus increased aggregate spending, whose ripple effect is usually felt throughout economy. I hope whoever gave the job to these not-so-responsible contractors understands that Rwandans aren’t happy seeing this kind of behavior in our economy. Rwandans want to move fast. There’s no time to delay anything that adds to our momentum. As for dropping projects, Rwandans got no money to waste. That’s “Kirazira.” Let’s move fast. Let’s work smart and professionally. We won’t take pauses or stroll if we keep that in our hearts. Cameo
