FARG to be phased out by 2019

The Fund for Genocide Survivors’ (FARG) may wind up by 2019 if the concerned ministries and Governors of all the provinces of Rwanda come to an agreement this week, The New Times can exclusively reveal. In a meeting that has been closed to the media, the Ministries of Finance, Local Government, Health and Education were joined by all provincial Governors to discuss the roadmap towards the fund’s final phase-out in a strategic plan that has been prepared by FARG. An inside source at the meeting told this reporter that as part of the roadmap discussions, the meeting’s main focus is based on the four pillars of the fund which are education, project funding, health and shelter. “At the meeting, we looked at how emphasis can be added to funding survivors’ income generating projects as the quickest way of dealing with their health and shelter issues,” the source revealed. The source also told The New Times, that the Executive Secretary of FARG, Bernard Itangishaka, informed the participants that the Fund’s last batch of secondary school students had joined senior one this year. The meeting is also discussing the possible phase out of the shelter programme by the end of this year if all goes according to plan. The strategic plan also had new and tougher measures that will leave no loopholes in how funds are allocated to survivors. “There was an issue of new funding measures where FARG mentioned that it would be difficult to forge the requirements as was the norm before,” the source said. After the team discussions, the report will be forwarded to the Cabinet. FARG was established by the government in 1998 as an officially recognised channel for any financial and material support to the most vulnerable genocide survivors. 5 percent of the country’s total internal revenue collections are injected into the Fund each year. The Fund has in the past years been dogged by reports of gross irregularities that prompted the government to fire the entire management team and commissioned a thorough financial audit. Ends

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FARG to be phased out by 2019