Members of Parliament, on November 7, requested for the embezzlers of public funds to be prosecuted and be held accountable for their offenses. Among those include suppliers of poor-quality tables whose prices were ‘inflated’. The lower House made the call as it adopted its Public Accounts Committee (PAC)’s assessment of the Auditor General (AG)’s 2020-2021 report. While presenting the report, MP Valens Muhakwa, PAC Chairperson, said that the Committee realised there are still issues of compliance with laws and regulations being observed in public entities that are allocated public funds, including filling the books of accounts and ensuring value for money. MP Beline Uwineza, PAC Deputy Chairperson said that based on the magnitude of the issues identified while it was analysing the Auditor General’s 2020-2021 report, it came up with resolutions that meant to tackle the identified problems, including requesting RPPA to prosecute those who are responsible for public finance mismanagement cases. Here are some of the public asset mismanagement cases that Parliament wants prosecuted. The poor-quality tables procured by RP at an exorbitant cost Going by the Auditor General’s findings, PAC said that Rwanda Polytechnic (RP) procured 70 workbenches (tables) for which it paid Rwf86.4 million – with a unit price of over Rwf1.2 million. “After conducting the physical verification of the supplied materials, the audit is of view that their quality is not commensurate to the cost paid by RP, the AG observed in the report. MP Theogene Munyangeyo said that Rwanda Polytechnic wondered why the Rwanda Polytechnic as an entity that teaches how to make furniture and welding, among other equipment, did not make the table in question, instead of buying it. “That is the first internship that a child (TVET) student should start by,” he said, referring to making the table in question, indicating that incurring losses on such tables is inacceptable. ‘Too expensive’ tarmac road contact in Rubavu According to PAC, Rubavu District awarded a tender worth over Rwf7.2 billion for the construction of a 5.89 kilometre-tarmac road in question, with a kilometre costing an average of more than Rwf1.2 billion. It indicated that this price is way too high compared to that in neighbouring districts, and should be probed. According to information from the district, the road in question connects an integrated crafts production centre (Agakiriro) and other roads in the town (of Rubavu). During PAC hearings on the AG’s report, it was exposed that a kilometer of a tarmac road cost four times more in Rubavu than in Musanze, two neighbouring districts that PAC said would normally have similar terrain features, and therefore, not too different road construction prices. This is the case because Rubavu spent Rwf1.22 billion on a kilometre of asphalt road, which is over three times more compared to Rwf363 million in Musanze; two and a half times more than Rwf488 million in Muhanga District, and two times the Rwf605 million in Nyagatare District. The ‘irregular spending’ on two Mpazi bridges PAC indicated that the City of Kigali awarded a tender for the construction of two bridges on Mpazi drain (water channel) located in Nyarugenge District to a contractor who gave too low prices – slightly over Rwf2 billion – or less than half compared to the estimated value of the works that was determined by feasibility studies – over Rwf4.4 billion. The project was intended to mitigate flooding in Nyabugogo commercial area Yet, PAC said, over Rwf7 billion has been spent on this bridge construction project so far. The previous audit carried out in April [2020] by the Auditor General noted irregularities in the construction of the two Mpazi bridges in question. It indicated that on November 6, 2019, the City of Kigali signed a one-year contract of over Rwf2 billion with Signon Corporation Ltd for construction works of the two Mpazi channel bridges, located in Nyarugenge District, Kigali. But, according to the audit, after update of design and Bills of Quantities, on September 1, 2020, the City of Kigali signed a new contract of Rwf7.7 billion with the same firm for construction works of the two bridges. The contract would be executed within seven months. Tender for supply of school desks Another public tender that Parliament said should be looked into is that worth over Rwf1.6 billion to supply desks to schools in the City of Kigali. It exposed that this procurement was characterised by mismanagement which resulted in exceeding the number of needed desks as a surplus of 3,000 desks were procured. Changing rent contract for the Southern Province’s office MPs said that the rent contract for the Southern Province’s office was changed, causing an unexplained public spending increase, which prosecution should examine. They indicated that in that change, an addendum (additional agreement) consisting of 320 square metres was made, which resulted in the increase of rent fee from over Rwf4.6 million to over Rwf7.1 million per month, without showing the factors that were based on to do that. Repeated billing in the construction of King Faisal Hospital outpatient block The audit of the execution of the $14.4 million (over Rwf15 billion) contract for the construction of outpatient buildings at King Faisal Hospital, revealed that some similar items in bills of quantities, were written more than once. The identified faults are worth Rwf417 million, yet there are the ones that were based on to pay the contractor.
