Government and other stakeholders should take tough measures to recover all misappropriate public funds which were intended for social protection programmes.

This was said earlier this week as Transparency International (TI) Rwanda launched its analysis of the Auditor General’s reports on decentralised entities for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015.

The amount found to have been defrauded during the year under review tripled to over Rwf329 million from Rwf119 million the previous financial year, while the number of affected districts rose from five to eight.

According to TI-Rwanda chairperson, Marie Immaculée Ingabire, between 2010 and 2015, there was very slow progress in recovering funds embezzled by local government officials, where only 4.6 per cent of the Rwf1.6 billion lost in the five years was recovered.

A very significant proportion (over 41 per cent) of the lost funds, TI-Rwanda says, was meant for Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP) - an integrated local development programme designed to accelerate poverty eradication, rural growth, and boost social protection.

"We call upon the law enforcement institutions to step up the efforts as far as assets recovery is concerned to support all efforts towards full implementation of Auditor General’s recommendations,” Ingabire said.

She said that bailiffs should do their work of recovering public funds from convicted officials.

"A bailiff who will not enforce the court verdict on recovery of the embezzled funds in question should be treated as an accomplice,” she said.

The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Local Government, Odette Uwamariya, said that the funds under VUP are lost in three ways; going to underserving beneficiaries, defaulting on loans, and embezzlement.

She noted that over 200 local leaders involved in such malpractices were sacked from their positions and prosecuted.

According to the head of economic and financial unit at the Public Prosecution Authority, Jean Marie Vianney Nyirurugo, the low rate of public asset recovery is largely attributed to court procedures, including appeal that takes longer (not less than one year) and as a result, delay the recovery process.

"All the concerned organs including prosecution, police, the Office of Ombudsman, and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, have joined efforts to deal with this crime and prosecute all the suspects involved in the mismanagement of public assets,” he said.

For Assistant Commissioner of Police Jean Nepo Mbonyumuvunyi, the Commissioner for Inspectorate of Services and Ethics at Rwanda National Police, there are people who transfer property acquired through embezzled funds to other people such as relatives.

This, he said, makes the investigation complex and delays the recovery of the public assets in question. He called for information sharing and collaboration among all judicial actors to ensure such assets are recovered.

Senator Marie-Claire Mukasine said that more efforts should be made to recover public funds to benefit the country’s development.

"Rwanda has a vision to achieve and has the will to reach there. If there is a leader who doesn’t carry out their responsibility they should be fired from their position,” she said.

editorial@newtimes.co. rw