200 officials set to appear before PAC

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has summoned 193 officials from both central government and local authorities to explain their role in the loss of funds highlighted in the 2009/10 Auditor General’s report. The officials will start appearing before the committee today. Among those summoned include seven Permanent Secretaries, the Mayor of Kigali City, four governors, mayors and senior officials in all the said institutions. According to the AG’s report, public institutions could not account for Rwf 9.7 billion. Part of the report, currently being analysed by PAC, indicates that 36 institutions incurred wasteful expenditure amounting to Rwf 1 billion that could have been avoided had they complied with laws, regulations and procedures in force. “We will convene sessions where officials will explain to us how they executed their responsibilities with regard to issues highlighted in the AG’s report,” said PAC chairperson, Juvenal Nkusi. “We based our summonses on the report analysis we did and after the hearing, we will have a general picture of the management of state funds.” According to Nkusi, PAC may consider summoning more government officials if it deems it necessary. Among those to be summoned include chief budget managers from public institutions, internal auditors and heads of tender committees, who will all be expected to appear alongside the heads of their respective institutions. The 2009/10 report highlights weaknesses in the preparation of financial statements where issues such as omission of receivables and payables, omitted bank accounts and balances, errors in books of account, unexplained differences in opening balances and lack of approval in adjusting entries in financial statements were observed. Others include differences between balances in consolidated financial statements and those in financial statements of individual budget agencies and un-reconciled inter-entity transactions in public institutions, among others. Ends

National

200 officials set to appear before PAC