Finance institutions sign performance contracts

KIGALI - The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, James Musoni, Friday urged all institutions operating under the Ministry to improve on service delivery and build capacity that suits their role as key institutions driving the economy forward. Musoni was addressing heads of institutions supervised by the ministry at a ceremony to sign performance contracts for the year 2010. He underscored the need for the institutions to increase service delivery if their goals are to be achieved. “What you have just presented here are just summaries, but the action plan is quite wide but where do we start if we are to be exemplary?--- Set up audit committees which carry out quarterly audits and from there you can get to know how you are performing and where to improve,” the Minister said. “This is very important. Otherwise the focus is there, the energy is there, all we need to do is set ourselves standards by which we should abide”. The institutions which include Rwanda Revenue Authority, Social Security Fund of Rwanda, National Institute of Statistics, RAMA, the National Public Procurement Authority, the Automobile Guarantee Fund, Capital Markets Advisory Council as well as several departments of the Ministry presented their targets for next year. RRA vowed to widen the tax base and hit the target of Rwf 368bn in collections for the year 2009/10 as well as focussing on low and medium tax payers. The tax body also vowed to crackdown on smuggling and also streamline the management of the body as well as continuing the implementation of EAC customs union. SSFR also presented 10 targets to achieve in the 2nd half of the fiscal year 2009/10 to improve on its investment plan and also carry out major reforms in the social security fund, including the Provident fund pillar. The fund is targeting Rwf 49bn in social security contributions of which Rwf 26bn will be a contribution from the investments. The fund plans to launch the maternity insurance project and hopes to register 2800 new contributors as well as computerising its activities. SSFR is also holding talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo to secure and transfer savings of Rwandans who worked in the DRC. NISR also vowed to ensure the availability of National statistics on quarterly basis including the Consumer Price Index, Producer price index as well as external credit and GDP statistics. The institute has also vowed to provide social demographic statistics indicating the performance of different sectors of the economy including education and health among others. NISR will also work towards readying the country for September 2010 National Census, among other things.The medical insurance scheme RAMA plans to improve effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery including ICT based operations where people will be given smart cards. It also promised to add insurance cover for complicated diseases such as kidney failure and also ensure that all hospitals, clinics and pharmacies providing RAMA services are linked as well as setting up a state-of-the-art laboratory in its new building. RAMA also pledged to play its part in the planned merger with SSFR and also venture into investment. CMAC promised to carryout awareness campaigns to educate people on capital markets and also fast track the privatisation process on behalf of the government. “Through CMAC, we intend to dedicate efforts towards ensuring the financing of Small and Medium Enterprises through the capital markets—we also want to work on capital market incentives in partnership with RRA to lure investors to take part in the capital markets,” said Henry Gaperi, the board chairman of CMAC. He also revealed that CMAC has already procured an electrical display board which will be installed soon while it is also working on plans to start electronic trading before the end of the 2009/20 financial year. The National Public Procurement Authority vowed to crackdown on illegal tender practices by ensuring transparency in the process to award government tenders. The Automobile Guarantee Fund revealed that it is targeting Rwf 320 m in form of automobile insurance contributions from Insurance companies as well Rwf 7m from different fines. Musoni said that records show that the idea of signing performance contracts is very important and has paid off in the last few years since it sets a clear vision and guidelines to follow. Ends