Rwanda Association of Local Government Authorities (RALGA) yesterday awarded model districts in the annual local government innovation competition.

The awards were given out during the association’s annual general assembly held in Kigali.

The occasion brought together local government authorities from across the country.

In its efforts to build an efficient, effective, transparent and accountable local government system, RALGA conducts capacity building  programmes such as training, study tours and technical exchange for, both physical and online.

The objective of the programmes is to strengthen the capacity of districts and City of Kigali to respond to basic issues in the livelihoods of their citizens, especially by helping them determine, design and implement efficient solutions to their service delivery needs.

This year’s awards ceremony was held under the theme "Effective land management for improved local human settlement planning and development”.

Ngoma, Kirihe, Gasabo, Nyabihu and Kamonyi districts were awarded Rwf 3m each for best settlement practices.

The winners were chosen after an evaluation team assessed all the districts to determine those with the best practices. The criteria ranged from easy access to schools, hospitals, water and electricity to the quality of the buildings.

In order to ensure transparency and fair evaluation of competing practices, RALGA appealed to partner institutions with relevant expertise in the area of land management and settlement planning to nominate senior staff to join the competition’s evaluation committee.

The chairperson of RALGA, Justus Kangwagye, said the competition was tight, but emphasised that it was an important exercise because it aims at putting citizens’ welfare at the forefront.

"As local government leaders, we know firsthand the land problem we are facing in the country. In order to find a solution for it, we had to be the first to assess if our practices favour the policy of land preservation,” he said.

Meanwhile, during the assembly, officials from Rwanda Revenue Authority and Ministry of Trade and Industry sensitised local government leaders on tax policies.

This was to enable local government leaders understand terminologies used in tax administration.

According to Jean Marie Vianney Gakwerere, the deputy commissioner for regional and decentralised taxes, they recently signed an MoU with districts to work together in collecting taxes.

"We hope to start putting into practice what we agreed in the MoU which is; to collect license, general cleanliness and housing taxes. After collecting those taxes, we shall always deposit the money on the districts’ bank accounts,” he said.

 He added that they are working on modalities to reduce the amount of time spent during payment of taxes.

This, he said, would be possible after adopting the use of technology because people spend a lot of time at the district headquarters and at banks to access the relevant documents.

Francis Kaboneka, the Minister for Local Government, urged leaders to continue working hard to achieve the set targets with regards to land preservation.

"This awards initiative gives us hope that we are on the right track to achieving our set goals.  However, as we embrace citizen-centred development leadership, it is important to note that governance is only possible if we involve the people we serve,” he said.

Kaboneka emphasised the need to use land effectively for conservation purposes.

"I urge towns to follow their master plans. Because of the increasing population, the demand for land is increasing and we still have more generations coming. So, let us own these programmes, work together and involve the local population,” he said.