FARG blames govt officials for its woes

The Fund for Support of Genocide Survivors (FARG) has accused some government officials of being responsible of the gross irregularities that have marred the fund since its establishment in 1998. FARG has for long been considered a failed entity and several debates have failed to reach a consensus on how to curb defaulters from unjustifiably benefiting from the fund. In an interview, the FARG Executive Secretary, Jean Marie Karekezi, blamed some government officials for playing a major role in the misappropriation of the fund’s money. He also attacked judicial authorities for not following up cases of those involved in the irregularities. “There are many local leaders hiding behind FARG committees and use their authority to illegally include some people on the list of beneficiaries yet they are not among the vulnerable groups,” said Karekezi. The FARG chief alleged that some officials who were reported to the police for creating the irregularities have walked away free. He however added that FARG has filed a case against one government official who is soon expected to appear in court but declined to reveal the name of the official. In a separate interview, the Minister of Local Government, Protais Musoni counter-accused FARG saying: “If you are part of the system, before blaming anyone you first look into the problem and come up with ways of solving it before casting the blame on someone.” Musoni however admitted that the Fund has long been characterised by irregularities and that new strategies have been put in place to iron out the problems. In collaboration with FARG, the government is planning a countrywide validation on Friday that would put an end to the inconsistencies that have rocked the Fund for the last ten years. According to Musoni, the validation process will start from local authorities. “We intend to use statistical surveys from the lowest level of governance... several meetings will be held on Wednesday to collect lists of the vulnerable people who are supposed to benefit from FARG and we will meet on Friday to compare with FARG lists before coming up with a final one,” said Musoni. He added that after that approach, what will be remaining is to also look into the delivery programme of FARG, a process that would be done by the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Finance. Asked if the validation would leave FARG a clean organ, Minister Musoni said that the process will help them identify the problems, their causes and the people involved. “The causes of these problems within FARG may be cultural, legal, political, managerial, poor skills, or anything, we will know the exact cause of these problems during the validation and come up with remedies,” he added. Earlier, Karekezi had also said that the validation will make leaders feel ownership of FARG and be accountable for any irregularities that might arise in their areas. He added that about 30,000 beneficiaries are eliminated on FARG’s list every year but another big number is added.Practically, the number of beneficiaries is supposed to be going down as some get economically empowered while others like students finish schools. Karekezi admitted that there had been inconsistencies in the management of FARG money in the early days of its inception but argued that the current administration had taken significant steps in addressing the messes. Meanwhile, the government, in 2006, had initiated plans of disbanding and replacing FARG with an-all-inclusive body that would be financed through a basket fund by different stakeholders. Asked how far the initiative had gone, Musoni said that the plans were still underway and the bill establishing the new body is in parliament awaiting approval. He added that the new fund would ease the process of addressing survivors’ shelter, education and health support. The government injects five percent of its annual internal revenues into FARG, but the money remains a drop in the ocean as the needs of most survivors remain unsatisfied. A parliamentary Select Committee set up to investigate the controversy surrounding the Fund in 2006 had proposed to the government to consider increasing its financial allocation from 5 percent to 12 but the entire House rejected the proposal saying that the funds would be abused. However, Karekezi said that the current government contribution would be enough to meet all requirements if it was not misappropriated. Last year the institution collected about Rwf 1.1billion, compared to the Rwf 800 million collected in 2007. It projects to collect over Rwf 1.5billion this year. Ends

National

FARG blames govt officials for its woes