Ombudsman says report based on ‘perceptions’

The Ombudsman Tito Rutaremara said his 2008 that partly ranked most corrupt institutions in the country was not based on scientific research but rather views gathered from ordinary people on the streets. The report released last week provoked different reactions from public institutions, especially those ranked as most corrupt. “We asked specialists to make surveys on how people perceive or view some government institutions, and we came up with their perception,” said Rutaremara in a telephone interview, blaming the media for hurriedly jumping on the report to portray it as a result of an audit in the institutions. The judiciary was last week infuriated by the findings after the institution was ranked in the 75-page report as the second most corrupt institution. The traffic police department was the most corrupt. Rutaremara said the findings of people’s perception on some institutions were important and therefore wanted to bring them to the attention of parliament. He decried a lack of enough capacity within his office to expose the corrupt. He also cited a weakness in the law that prevents them from divulging names of the corrupt unless they have been found guilty of the vice and sentenced by the courts of justice. “This is one of the elements we have requested for in the new law, that we should be allowed to expose documented corruption tendencies beforehand,” he added. According to Rutaremara, the new law that is currently under scrutiny by the Ministry of Justice should also provide his office with prosecutorial powers for some of the cases. Ends

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Ombudsman says report based on ‘perceptions’