MPs demand tougher laws on fund mismanagement

A preliminary report from the recent parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) public hearings has recommended that more stringent laws are put in place to deal with repeat offenders. The report was presented to the plenary yesterday. PAC chairperson Juvenal Nkusi told the MPs that although there were efforts to implement the recommendations cited in the last report, there was still evident issue of mismanagement of funds meant for vulnerable people. MP Theobald Mporanyi said it was about time PAC was given prosecutorial powers. “This is one of the many similar reports by PAC and even if you compare it to the Auditor-General’s reports that have come here for over ten years, the institutions cited are the same over and again. What does this mean? Do these institutions have some sort of immunity? We need a law that gives PAC prosecutorial powers because whether it is the performance audit or execution, these mistakes keep recurring,” he said. However, deputy speaker of the Lower House, Abbas Mukama, rejected the idea, saying there were specific organs arms that can instead work closely with PAC to deal with the issues. “PAC is a parliamentary commission like all the others and by giving it such powers, we would be breaking the law in respect of the roles of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. It would require us to change many things. Instead, what we can do as MPs is to find a way to work together so that these mistakes can be corrected by, for instance, tightening the laws that punish mismanagement,” he said. MP Anoncee Manirarora said some issues regarding mining had not changed. “From what I have read, besides the faces of mayors having changed because their mandate expired, the issues that were there in the past are still the same today. Mayors are not aware of what is being done by mining companies so that they can even follow up. I am proposing a decentralised arrangement so that there are agreements between the companies and districts so that they can follow up better,” she said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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MPs demand tougher laws on fund mismanagement