Top government officials charged with mismanaging a multi-billion government tender appeared before the Gasabo Intermediate Court on Friday September 2, and requested to have their trial in substance outside of jail. The officials are Caleb Rwamuganza the former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning; Eric Serubibi the ex-Director General of Rwanda Housing Authority; and Christian Rwankunda a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure. Others are Godfrey Kabera, the ex-Director-General in charge of Planning in the finance ministry; Aloys Rusizana, an investor in real estate and Bonaventure Munyabugingo, a private property valuer. They are facing charges in relation to flouting public tender procedures where they allegedly conspired to mismanage a deal in which the government purchased an office building, with irregularities which cost the taxpayer a whooping Rwf2 billion. The building in question is an office complex located in Kacyuru, opposite Umubano Hotel. They have been on remand since late June and are being kept in custody in Nyarugenge Prison, commonly known as Mageragere. Appearing before the Rusororo-based court via video-link, the six defendants asked that before their trial can continue in substance, they should be allowed to go out of jail, and they gave reasons for it. It was mainly their lawyers – who were with them in prison – that did much of the talking. The main arguments by the lawyers was that they had been remanded on the account that they would tamper with evidence since investigations were still ongoing. According to the lawyers, now that the case has gone into the substantive phase, this risk was no longer valid as all investigations have been concluded. They added that the suspects were no flight risk because they all had permanent addresses where they can be found and that they would comply with any other restrictions. Some lawyers even questioned the factors that court had considered as reasonable ground linking their clients to the crime when they were being remanded earlier. For instance, Serubibi’s lawyer argued that his client entered the tender process when key decisions to buy the building had already been taken, and thus, it is not fair for him to be on remand for such. Another factor that the defendants brought forth was the fact that court refused to acknowledge the collateral that they presented when they were asking for bail. Moise Nkundabarashi the lawyer of Rwamuganza argued that one of the defendants – Rusizana presented a collateral worth Rwf5 billion and this was even more than the losses that prosecution claims were incurred by the state in the controversial transaction. However, presenting their counter-argument, prosecution among other things argued that there were a number of reasons for remanding the six suspects which are beyond just being flight risks or interfering with evidence when the investigations were being carried out. The prosecutors said that the remand decision was also based on the fact that the crimes the defendants are charged with are big and carry more than two years sentence in jail if they are convicted. Court will pronounce its ruling on the issue on October 9.
