Parliament through the budgetary committee has called for a tight penalty for corrupt officials. This is in a move expected to reverse the corruption rate in the country. As the constitution mandates the parliament to hold government accountable, budgetary committee thinks that public servants are reluctant about government tender procedures. Abbas Mukama, Vice Chairman of the budgetary committee said that according to the auditor general’s report, people tend to ignore laws governing government tender procedures and how the public funds should be spent. “The chaos in most public institutions is caused by the tendency to ignore laws and these are taxes from citizens that are supposed to be reflected in their benefits like mittuelle de sante,” Mukama said. Mukama said that such actions are called economic crimes and heads of these institutions should also play a key role in controlling corruption. He said that some people intend to embezzle public funds comparing the time to be spent in jail and the money taken.He cited an example that some one might decide to runaway with Rwf200 million knowing that he might be in jail for three to five years but after he would enjoy the money. “It is a common thinking that’s why we need punishments for these people to be tightened because the money is supposed to support locals in one way or another,” he said with anger.He suggested that Auditor General Office should be empowered to carry out the audit per year unlike the current gap of a whole year. Currently, the budgetary committee is assessing the AGR of 2007. The parliament also intends to set up a Public Account (PA) committee which will work closely with the Auditor General Office on a daily basis to speed up assessment and recommendations to the prosecutor general. These would in return speed the tracking of corruption cases.The establishment of PAC is also in line with the aligning of the Rwandan parliament with others in EAC. This will improve transparency, and contribute to anti-corruption efforts from the government. Ends
