Kigali City projects on course

Editor,I wish to respond to an article published in The NewTimes, May 16, under the headline “Procurement laws delay projects in Kigali”. I would like to shade light on some issues that were raised concerning the implementation of development projects in the City of Kigali.The City of Kigali would like to reiterate its committement to follow procurement regulations and wish to point out that all projects in the City of Kigali have duly followed all procurement requirements.As it was pledged by the Mayor in his inaugural speech, the City of Kigali will always restrictly follow all public financial management rules.The story referred to a recent review by the Ministry of Local Government which indicated that the City of Kigali had implemented only 35% of the planned project. However, as it had been previously clarified the reason for this minimum percentage is that the biggest percentage payments on the budget are computed in the expenditure accounts of our project partners such as Rwanda Housing Agency (RHA) and the Road Maintenance Fund (FER). As per the last 3 quarters completed, the City of Kigali has implemented 71% of its annual budget of Rwf 29 billion and the implementation of the development budget is 82%.The article indicated that there is ‘slow progress’ in road construction, and maintenance and construction of health centres. But all these projects are on course and will be completed on schedule. We are currently at 70% on the implementation of a multi-year road construction project of 34 KM which started in December 2010 and will be completed in September this year.In this financial year 2011-2012, we had planned for the construction of 4 Health centres in Remera, Gatenga, Kanyinya and Mageragere as opposed to what the article had indicated.Progress on the construction of these Health centres is 90% and works on all four sites will be completed on schedule. Health Centres on Kimironko, Gatsata and Kigarama were not in our action plan for this financial year.Installation of traffic lights is completed and they are presently functioning. These traffic lights have improved safety on our roads and enhanced traffic flow in the city. Rangira BrunoCity of Kigali

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Kigali City projects on course