More awareness on Imihigo needed - Senate

The senatorial committee on political affairs has criticised local government units for not adequately involving the communities in the preparation of performance contracts commonly known as Imihigo yet their implementation calls for popular participation.Launched in 2006, Imihigo are series of performance management contracts signed between the President of the Republic and all 30 district mayors on behalf of their constituents (from a family to the district)“Majority of the people consider that Imihigo are signed only between mayors and the President. Yet this should trickle down to the village level,” committee chairman, Apollinaire Mushinzimana, said while submitting a report on Imihigo to the upper chamber of Parliament chaired by Senate president Dr. Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo.A village is the smallest local government unit.Accompanied by a documentary film, the report observes that citizens give credit to local leaders, whom they describe as full of integrity while faulting them for overlooking them in the preparation of Imihigo. “At some point, local leaders told the committee that mayors tell them ‘these are orders from above’…this creates a problem of acceptability and ownership of the process,” Mushinzimana said.He told the House that local leaders had not capitalised on community forums to popularise imihigo to inform citizens about the development agenda.The senators further identified high turnover of employees as another ill affecting the effective performance of local government units. They said this threatened continuity and retention of experienced staff to implement development programmes at the grassroots level.“From the face of it, advisory councils are composed of competent persons who can shape the development agenda but they are absent,” Mushinzimana told the House.Senator Jeanne d’Arc Gakuba told the House that while citizens contribute to Imihigo through district development plans that are elaborate and relevant; such plans do not conform to the budgeting process.In the report, senators cited a lot of pressure in the implementation of government programmes at sector level, saying this does not reflect the allocated budget.The idea of performance contracts has become the benchmark for local government authorities to define development priorities, annual targets and activities, the senators said in the report.The tool has helped to improve service delivery and fast-track the country’s development agenda.It is recorded publicly in a written contract that presents a set of development targets backed by specific performance indicators over a period of one year.The annual evaluation of the Imihigo process shows that districts have attained significant progress – even with minimal central government intervention.Through the process, the central government creates a channel through which it receives complaints from the population concerning the quality, quantity, and fairness of services provided.Imihigo has a strong focus on results which makes it an invaluable tool in the planning, accountability and monitoring and, evaluation processes. As such, it has been used to design a series of performance management contracts signed between the President and the country’s 30 district mayors.In August, Kicukiro District emerged the best performer with 95.5 per cent.Kicukiro mayor Jules Ndamage told The New Times then that cash flow is a crucial aspect towards realising the performance targets because every activity has a financial upshot.

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More awareness on Imihigo needed - Senate