Local leaders train on procurement procedures

Directors of finance, procurement officers, accountants and internal auditors from all provinces and districts are undergoing training on public procurement procedures and contract management. The training follows allegations, mainly from the Auditor General, accusing several local officials of improper book keeping which led to large sums of money unaccounted for during several audits. The five-day training that started yesterday is organized by the Ministry of Local Government in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and Rwanda Revenue Authority. It was opened by Wenceslas Niyibizi, the Director of Local Government, Finance Unit in the local government ministry. Among the main objectives of the training is to ensure transparency, competition, efficiency and accountability in awarding of tenders and providing supporting documents to any amount of money spent at all levels. Illegal awarding of tender by different officials has been rampant, leading to some of them being prosecuted. According to Niyibizi, there have been indications that funds meant for specific projects in provinces, districts and Kigali City are at times diverted to other areas of interest to some leaders. “There have not been proper supporting documents identifying specific areas where and how the money was spent and tendering procedures have been flouted,” Niyibizi told the leaders. He observed that most leaders at sector level across the country rarely bring finished receipt books to be accounted for at the district which results into swindling of millions of taxpayers’ money. He singled out funds given to schools, hospitals and prisons as the most uncounted for. “We need these supporting documents to verify if the money was used as originally entailed,” he said. On the issue of tendering process, he said that procurement officers have on many occasions awarded tenders beyond their offices. According to the law governing tenders, all tenders above Rwf100 million are only left to Rwanda Public Procurement Authority (RPPA) formerly National Tender Board. Ends