20,000 cases handled by Ombudsman

The Office of the Ombudsman has handled 20,350 disputes since its establishment in 2004. The figure was made public by the acting Chief Ombudsman, Augustin Nzindukiyimana, during his presentation of the 2010-2011 report at a joint parliamentary session. The biggest number of cases was reported between 2010 and 2011; 6,340, which is 31.2 percent of all cases filed to the office since its establishment. This year’s report indicates that 65 cases related to corruption were filed to the Ombudsman’s office – the majority of which involved local authorities. “So far, we have solved 24 cases related to corruption, 40 dossiers are still being followed while one particular case was sent to other institutions,” said Nzindukiyimana, without elaborating which agency received the cases.Regarding wealth declaration, the acting Ombudsman said that its performance had improved. “Last year, we distributed 7,563 wealth declaration forms to government officials, among those, 6,709 (88.7 percent) returned the forms filled while 835 officials are yet to declare their wealth,” he noted. Hon. Gideon Kayinamura requested the Ombudsman to come up with a strategy to improve service delivery while lawmaker Amiel Ngabo wondered why the majority of the cases reported to the anticorruption tsar are related to court rulings.Several lawmakers commended the work done by the Ombudsman and requested him to maintain the pace of public awareness campaigns.In his response to MPs concerns, Nzindukiyimana said that the journey towards the elimination of corruption was still long. “We intend to initiate a study on the levels of corruption in Rwanda and have the findings published before the end of this year,” he maintained. Among particular cases highlighted in the report include those of people expropriated from Mbarara Island in Karongi District and those from Iwawa Island in Rutsiro, who were however promised access to their land. “When the land registration started, these people were denied ownership of the land. They reported the case to their respective district which said that it is the Rwanda Environment Management Authority that gave the directive not to give land titles to the victims,” reads the report. The report also points out that people expropriated from Iwawa Island were not compensated while Rutsiro District officials claim that the ministries of Defence and Sports and Culture are charged with compensating the victims.

National

20,000 cases handled by Ombudsman