Musoni defends changes in FARG top leadership

KIGALI - The Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, has said that FARG, the Fund for Support for Genocide Survivors, is a sensitive body because it deals directly with people’s welfare. Musoni said this yesterday explaining why the Fund’s leadership has changed hands many times in the last one year. According to the Minister, the Fund has faced problems of lack of leaders who can deliver as expected. “FARG is in charge of paying school fees for survivors, providing them with shelter and paying for vulnerable survivors’ healthcare, so it becomes easy to detect what is not going right, leading to quick action,” Musoni said. He added that the government’s policy of zero tolerance to any forms of inefficiencies and other kinds of bad practices has led to several changes in the fund’s management.Last week, the Prime Minister sacked three people who had been at the helm of the Fund’s leadership for suspected mismanagement of the fund’s resources. Among those sacked were Ildephonse Niyonsenga, the Fund’s Executive Secretary. He has been temporarily replaced by Theophile Ruberangeyo. The development came at a time when some supposedly student beneficiaries of FARG had been kicked out of school because their names did not appear on the fund’s sponsorship lists. Other irregularities have also been mentioned in the construction of survivor’s houses across the country where it has been said that the houses are substandard, while other survivors remain without shelter sixteen years after the Genocide. According to Musoni, the new leadership is going to work on ensuring that the beneficiaries’ database is accurate and well updated. “There is no reason why the beneficiaries don’t get what is meant for them on time yet the funds are always available,” said Minister Musoni. Every year the government sinks five percent of the budget into the Fund to cater to the needs of the survivors since FARG’s creation in 1998. Ends

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Musoni defends changes in FARG top leadership