Minister slams local leaders over FARG

NORTHERN PROVINCE RULINDO — The State Minister for Local Government, Christine Nyatanyi has given local authorities from all sectors in the Northern Province up to one week to submit lists of genuine beneficiaries of the Fund for the Assistance of Genocide Survivors (FARG). She was reacting to reports that indicated that the previous lists contained a big number of fake genocide survivors. This was during a regional meeting that attracted all district Mayors, Sector Executive Secretaries and security officials at the provincial headquarters in Kinihira. Recent reports indicated that there were many cases of ghost beneficiaries, most of them created by the local authorities; corruption and mismanagement of funds at the expense of the genuine vulnerable genocide survivors. Nyatanyi, said that the new validation exercise that started last Friday at village levels would help weed out the fake applicants with the help of residents. Boniface Rucagu, the area governor, observed that cases of corruption and sectarian tendencies among some local leaders had undermined the government’s desire to deliver the required support to genocide survivors. The governor called on residents and security organs to help in screening beneficiaries during the validation exercise. He also urged local leaders to set a specific time-frame within which to complete the construction of houses for the vulnerable genocide survivors. Ends