Districts to prepare reports on AG’s findings

Districts have been ordered to explain in writing what plans they have in place to end the continuous mismanagement of public funds. All districts will give the Ministry of Local Government detailed reports accounting for the mismanagement of state funds and all irregularities indicated in the 2006 Auditor General’s report. This follows the 2006 Auditor General’s report presented to the joint parliamentary session early this month indicating rampant mismanagement of public funds by various government institutions resulting in the lose of Frw5.3 billion. AG Evelyn Kamagaju decried high levels of irregularities in various public institutions and districts including among others; cases of rampant mismanagement of public funds in various districts in awarding tenders by some officials. The AG also blamed cases of double payments of salaries among some district officials which led to the loss of the taxpayers’ money. Francine Rutagengwa, the Financial Analyst in the Ministry of Local Government said districts must prepare reports on how they plan to deal with financial irregularities in the Auditor General’s reports. Rutagengwa was addressing district directors of finance and officials in-charge of taxes and customs duty yesterday about the mismanagement of public funds by districts that was detailed in the AG’s report. We wrote to districts recently requesting them to give us reports on how they intend to solve the financial mismanagement that was reported in the AG’s report, Rutagengwa said. She explained that the ministry sent a summary of the AG’s findings on how each district was responsible for mismanaging public funds. She said that each district would give detailed plans on how to solve the financial irregularities and insisted that those who fail would be dealt with accordingly. She cited some examples of the contents of the report which said there were no bank reconciliation statements detailing district expenditures which is by law expected to be prepared every month. There were no receipts indicating how much the districts earned from the taxes and customs duties levied, she quoted the report. Money that was distributed to sectors was also not recorded and there was no report showing how much was distributed or how it was used by Sector Executive Secretaries. The Secretary General of the ministry, Eugene Barikana, said that all financial problems in districts resulted from poor organisation. The Auditor General’s report indicates that districts are still mismanaging public funds but the law must be observed to stop this immediately, Barikana said.He urged district officials to put in place inspection plans of their daily expenditure programmes to ensure transparency. Districts are supposed to follow the procurement plans when dealing with procurement processes to ensure that cases of corruption are minimized, he warned. However by the time the directive was issued some districts had not received copies of the 2006 Auditor general’s report and were urged to get them immediately.Ends

National

Districts to prepare reports on AG’s findings