EASTERN PROVINCE NGOMA — The Ngoma district has dismissed as false reports that its leaders mismanaged the materials which were meant to build houses for needy residents. The New Times in its Wednesday, March 11 issue 2009, reported that Ngoma was among the nine districts in the country where 65 suspects were arrested after an investigation implicated them in theft of the building materials. The investigation was conducted by the Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC). The other districts implicated are Nyagatare, Gastibo, Bugesera, Rubavu, Nyamagabe, Huye, Musanze and Muhanga. However, Josephine Mutesayire, the district deputy Mayor in-charge of Social Affairs said that the contents of the report are not truthful stating that there is no one who was arrested in connection with theft of construction materials, after an evaluation that was carried out in the district. She added that most of the information which was included in the report is contrary to what is in the district’s records. The district reportedly received only 500 bags of cement. “We did not receive any other construction materials from MINALOC to resettle the vulnerable groups in the district apart from cement,” she said, in an interview with The New Times. According to the MINALOC report, which the New Times has seen, Ngoma in addition to cement received 120 iron sheets. It also states that only 34 houses were built contrary to 565 that were supposed to be built. Mutesayire however, said that no house was built under the MINALOC scheme. “How could we have built all those houses when we did not even receive a single iron sheet or nail?” she wonders. She says that the cement they received was used to construct 34 houses that were built under the Fund for Genocide Survivors (FARG). What remained in stock, she says, are 24 bags of cement but not 14 bags as the report claims. Ngoma has about 425 vulnerable families of which 169 are Genocide survivors. Mutesayire said that they hope to have settled all the 169 families by July this year. Meanwhile, the same report revealed that Nyagatare district in the Eastern Province topped others in the mismanagement of construction materials. At least 564 iron sheets received for the construction were instead sold off, according to the report. Bugesera comes second with 170 iron sheet sold off, while Gatsibo and Kirehe came third and fourth with 143 and 133 iron sheets sold respectively. Ends
