Prosecution takes up AG’s report

KIGALI - The Office of the Prosecutor General has vowed to crack down on people suspected to have embezzled or mismanaged public funds as highlighted in the 2008 Auditor General’s report. The report released on Wednesday indicates that over Rwf 4.3billion from 108 government institutions was unaccounted for. According to the Prosecutor General, Martin Ngoga, new measures have been put in place to follow up. “The system of following up cases cited in the Auditor General’s reports changed; this time, the AG kept sending us cases of irregularities that were unearthed during the process of auditing.” Ngoga added that majority of irregularities in the report have been followed up and some cases are now in court. “So far, we have opened up 36 files of cases highlighted in the report and we have handed them to the Police for investigation,” he said. In a bid to tighten investigations into the misuse and embezzlement of public funds, the prosecutor’s office created a unit charged with following up cases in the AG’s report and, according the Ngoga, the Criminal Investigation Department has also established a similar unit. Meanwhile, the prosecution has vowed to take tough measures against those who justify public funds only after the audit has been complete. “Normally, when we prosecute people as a result of the errors indicated in the report for failing to avail required papers to the auditors, they actually bring them to us or to the courts. This time we will ask whoever produces the papers late to take them to the Auditor General for verification,” said Ngoga. He hastened to add that his office does not have the expertise to carry out the verification saying that is why late documents will have to be sent to the AG. Ngoga emphasized that; “We will not be going back to the auditing system; Budget Managers should respect the auditors. “We intend to open 108 files on all entities that were audited, but we don’t expect to have 108 people arrested because there some errors were administrative. In this case, we will write to the institutions to impose sanctions on their employee who committed administrative mistakes.” Ends

National

Prosecution takes up AG’s report