Officials at the Office of the Prime Minister have promised Parliamentarians that they are going to increase efforts to ensure that ministries and government institutions implement in time the resolutions made to the parliament, as well as deliver good quality reports. Officials from the PM office made the pledge yesterday when they were presenting a report to the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC). PAC has for the past weeks been meeting different ministries and government institutions to assess their progress on the recommendations contained in the 2017 Auditor General’s report. PAC members told officials from the PM’s office that there are a number of unimplemented resolutions from ministries and institutions as well as cases of inconsistences in the reports they presented. “What is clear is that the way reports are prepared and presented is generally poor,” said Jean Chrysostome Ngabitsinze, the Chairperson of the committee. Ngabitsinze said that some senior officials neglect the planning process, leaving it in the hands of technicians. “As a result, you find that when evaluation time comes, the institutions at the centre differ with those that are responsible for implementation since they might not have sat down enough to do it together, give it value, and feel that it is something that should be done and delivered in a timely manner,” he said. Gratien Dusingizimana, the Governance Advisor to the Prime Minister said that implementation is delayed because of institutional weaknesses. These weaknesses, he said, include lack of information sharing among officials as well as not taking enough time to prepare together. “We have decided to put effort in following up with the ministries and other institutions to see that they respect deadlines they give to parliament,” he added. “Usually the resolutions have to be accomplished in a period of 8 months, and then reports are given. However, now we have decided that we shall not be waiting for the 8 months to see the outcome. We shall be following up closely with different institutions during the implementation process, getting information concerning where they are. This will reduce delays,” he said. He added that they have put up a special unit in the prime minister’s office for following up with the resolutions of that ministries and other institutions present to parliament. “We will always remind ministries and other institutions that in charge of implementation of these resolutions so that it is done in time, and reports are delivers in time as well,” he said. “We hope that next time, delays in implementation will not happen again. We have started to work on it,” he said. Concerning officials who make delays, or in one way or another make the government make losses, Ngabitsinze said that there is a way of following up with them using regulations of the ministry of Justice which make provision for the government to demand a compensation from them. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
