AG to unveil 2008 report this week

KIGALI - The Auditor General of State Finances, Evelyn Kamagaju, will on Wednesday present the Fiscal Year 2008 report during a joint session of Senators and Deputies at the Parliamentary Buildings, Kimihurura. The report which indicates how much the central government and public institutions spent during the fiscal year 2008 and how state finances were managed, comes at a time when the Chamber of Deputies is still following up on irregularities mentioned in previous reports. Kamagaju confirmed that her office is ready to table what would be her seventh report since 2002. She however refused to discuss the content of the report, saying it would be ‘pre-empting the constitutionalreserve of the legislators’. “The report is still confidential and the office cannot pre-empt details of its content until after it is presented to the parliament,” said Kamagaju. Previous reports indicated that huge amounts of public money was lost in illegal awarding of tenders, a practice many say is yet to be contained effectively, but of recent there has been significantimprovements. Pundits say President Paul Kagame’s resolve to get rid of corrupt officials at all levels of governance is one of the reasons for this improvement. Critics have however accused the legislature and the judiciary of moving slowly in taking action against those cited in previous reports to have mismanaged public funds. The 2007 report exposed a whooping Rwf6.5b of taxpayers’ money missing or unaccounted for. It also indicated that 122 out of 125 audit reports prepared in 99 institutions indicated that books of accounts were not well prepared. Ends

National

AG to unveil 2008 report this week