Govt loses billions in illegal tenders

The government has lost billions of francs owing to poor tendering processes, The New Times reports. In his presentation last week, the Deputy Auditor General; Obadiah Biraro, told a joint parliamentary session that while compiling the 2008 audits, it was realised that documents submitted for tenders are often incomplete. “Without complete procurement documents, I cannot ascertain that the procurement process complied with the six fundamental principles of transparency, competition, economy, efficiency, fairness and accountability required for all public procurements,” he said. Biraro pointed out FER- a construction company, whose documents relating to 62 tenders worth Rwf 10.2 billion awarded in 2008 for road maintenance works, are missing. Biraro, however, said that when compared to the previous year, there was an improvement, but hastened to add that there was still a lot of expenditure that did not have all the necessary supporting documents. The partially supported expenditures were in excess of of Rfw 13.9 billion. MP Veneranda Nyirahirwa wondered why year after year, the Auditor General’s report’s contained negative news and yet nothing had been done to rectify the issues. “It is unfortunate that the thickness of the auditor general’s reports doesn’t reduce and yet the contents are mostly negative. For example, look at illegal tendering processes, which can be avoided because we all know that there are laws to govern how tenders are issued, but people still break the law. What is being done to curb these issues?” she asked Biraro said that to rectify these issues, there was need for a Public Accounts Committee to make follow ups. Ends

National

Govt loses billions in illegal tenders