Rwf6b unaccounted for

Government ministries and parastatals spent at least Rwf5.9 billion without supporting documents during the financial year 2010/11, according to the Office of the Auditor General.The Auditor General, Obadiah Biraro, made the disclosure as he presented the 2110/11 audit report to both Chambers of Parliament on Friday.The report highlighted a recurrence of past malpractices and mistakes, including embezzlement and gross mismanagement of public funds, lack of supporting documents and wasteful public spending.In the latest report, expenses that lacked official justification, or partly supported expenditure, amounts to Rwf4.5 billion, compared to Rwf9.7 billion in the previous report.In the 2010/11 OAG report, “completely unsupported expenditure” totalled to Rwf5.9 billion, while in the 2009/10 report, it amounted to Rwf502.7million.Lack of supporting documents, intended or not, could be an avenue for misappropriation, officials said.However, embezzled funds, according to the 2010/11 OAG report, amount to Rwf627million, compared to Rwf81million in the previous report.In the 2009/10 report, the OAG uncovered hidden bank accounts belonging to several public institutions, which also failed to reporton the status of public funds on time. They were also accused of making illegal payments as well as mismanaging public property, among others.Much to Auditor General Biraro’s consternation, most of the public agencies “ignored” his advice based on the report of the 2009/10 findings.“Failure to follow our advice remains a challenge,” Biraro told Parliament. He pointed out that in the 2010/11 OAG report, omitted balances or cash not accounted for in books of accounts included Rwf5,483,707,461 and US$ 119,980 that government owes other agencies, in addition to receivables amounting to Rwf4,805,022,899.He noted there was Rwf1, 081,655,401 and US$195,346 on 45 accounts not listed in the books of accounts. Biraro also said that 330 accounts belonging to institutions that receive budget money through districts lacked clarity.In some cases, errors were corrected without proper approval, a situation that acts as a recipe for fraud, he said.Biraro noted that despite continued wasteful expenditure that amounted to Rwf1.6 billion registered among 31 institutions, such occurrences were avertable if regulations were followed.However, Biraro observed that progress had been made in management of public funds, saying that the “mindset was now more positive.”MP Anne Marie Musabyemungu noted that it was unacceptable for public corporations to ignore the OAG’s advice on management of funds, and called for action.MP Fortunee Nyiramadirida stressed the need to “recover the stolen funds at whatever cost since the culprits are known”. Senator Agnes Mukabaranga recommended that heads of public institutions must include fighting embezzlement in their performance contracts.MP Samuel Musabyimana said: “The list of culprits should be established very fast so that institutions charged with dealing with them do their work.”For Francoise Uwamariya, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, “thorough internal audits will curb such issues and those responsible should help us, otherwise these challenges will keep coming up.”Alfred Rwasa Kayiranga, the chairperson of the Chamber of Deputies’ standing committee on political affairs and gender, stated that the practice was unacceptable.“We cannot accept this. We have echoed similar sentiments in the past, made recommendations but we see little change. It has to stop”.MP Liberata Kayitesi said: “By and large, the mistakes are the same but what hurts most is the fact that the advice he [AG] gives them is not considered. I feel that as long as people who embezzle public funds are not prosecuted to serve as an example, the problem will persist, every other year.”Meanwhile, Speaker Rose Mukantabana was forced to defend Parliament after some lawmakers suggested the House was not doing enough to stem embezzlement of taxpayers’ money.“It is important that public funds are recovered. I don’t agree with suggestions that Parliament is doing nothing in that regard because every time we receive the Auditor General’s report, we examine it and present our recommendations to Government; we do follow up on everything,” Mukantabana said, adding that the six-month period the House gave the Government to act on the previous report’s recommendations was not yet over.“At the right time, we shall ask government what happened. The biggest issue that we should focus on now is the recovery of these lost funds.”

National

Rwf6b unaccounted for