Prosecution moves to act on AG report

The National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) announced plans to prosecute all public officials cited in the 2010/11 Auditor General’s report as having misappropriated public funds. The report released last Friday indicates gross mismanagement and recurrent embezzlement, malpractices and mistakes, with unsupported expenditures increasing to Rwf5.9 bn, up from Rwf502.7million in the previous report.Prosecutor Come Harindintwali of the Economic Crime Unit in NPPA said they are in the process of informing the officials and the institutions to explain the circumstances under which the funds went missing. Embezzled funds, according to the 2010/11 OAG report, amount to Rwf627million, compared to Rwf81million in the previous report.“We are now reading the report thoroughly; the Prosecutor General will very soon write to all those cited in the report to come and explain themselves,” Harindintwali said in a telephone interview.The AG report shows 91 per cent of all the reports audited had ‘qualified audit opinions,’ meaning all books of accounts had mistakes and officials didn’t follow legal procedures regarding the use of public funds, and ignored the AG’s advice, which was based on his 2009/10 findings, in which Rwf9.7 billion went missing.“Things like arrests of officials will come later, after we complete investigations,” said Harindintwali.“We want to be in the final stages of investigations in the next six months; our target is to complete investigating all cases as they come, in time,” he added.Only 11 books of accounts, which include those of the ministries of finance, agriculture and natural resources and Public Sector Capacity Building Project, had unqualified opinions.Tenders worth about Rwf1.5 billion were also awarded without going through tender committees, as is the norm while some entrepreneurs were cheated to a tune of over Rwf39 million.Other tenders amounting to about Rwf11.2 billion were also awarded without all legal documents while others of Rwf46.2m and US$39600 were awarded without any supporting document.Harindintwali also confirmed that a list of officials who were found to be beyond the level of being fined for either embezzling or misappropriating billions of taxpayers’ money as was indicated in the 2007 to 2010 AGs reports, was sent to the Prime Minister’s office.A total of 342 public servants were dragged to court for causing massive financial losses to the government through fraud, illegal awarding of tenders and mismanagement of public assets.They include financial controllers, heads of institution and members of internal of internal tender committees at all governance levels.These officials, who are in the third category, were found to be beyond the level of being fined, which prompted NPPA to take them to court because of the gravity of their cases and the amount of money involved.The Director of Cabinet in the Prime Minister’s Office, Eugene Barikana, however, had told this paper, on Monday, that they were yet to receive the list of those officials. But Harindintwali confirmed that the list was delivered to the PM’s office early this month.“Most of the officials on the list were produced in court in different parts of the country, though some of them are still in service,” said Harindintwali.The Prime Minister is the one to decide if these officials will continue serving as their cases are still in court or be dismissed, according to prosecution.Only Rwf134.4 million was recovered through fines levied on officials for failing to account for the missing funds, unpaid taxes or stolen money.Over Rwf79.4 million are tax arrears while Rwf54.9 million are fines levied on officials.The mechanism of fining officials started with the current calendar year. Previously all officials would be taken to court.At least 75 officials have also been convicted of stealing over Rwf383.6 million tax payers money.