Bid to recover public funds

ACCOUNTABILITY:Eight cases will soon be sent to court Investigations by the Office of Prosecutor General into 26 cases related to mismanagement of public funds within government institutions have been finalised, the Sunday Times has learnt.A report, dated, March, 21 indicates that eight cases involving government officials will soon be sent to court. Eleven other similar cases are being investigated. According to prosecution, in total, thirty seven institutions were targeted. The report indicates that most of the cases are related to shady tendering.Investigations were launched following the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report which indicated that Rwf 9.7 billion had been unaccounted for by various government institutions in 2009/10.Only five officials previously implicated have been exonerated for lack of enough evidence to sustain their cases in court. For instance, eleven officials from the government transport company, Onatracom, including its manager, have been implicated in the mismanagement of public funds.Kigali City Council has 13 officials who allegedly flouted the law governing proper tendering procedures.The Prosecution report also implicates six officials from the Ministry of Education and nine from Nyarugenge District, who are accused of not following normal tendering processes. Others implicated are five from Community Development Fund (CDF). Their Director General is also accused of embezzling public funds and forging official documents.