The Chamber of Deputies’ plenary sitting held virtually on Thursday, April 29 concluded that the Community Processing Centres (CPCs) locally commonly known as Uruganda Iwacu programme did not achieve the intended results for which they were established.

Instead, lawmakers said, the Government was losing money through the privatisation of failing CPCs at little money compared to the investment made.

To this end, the Lower House resolved to summon the Minister of Trade and Industry to explain the issues that were identified in CPCs during a parliamentary probe.

It made the resolution after adopting its Public Accounts Committee (PAC)’s assessment of the operation and management of CPCs.

The centres serve as incubators, information centres and demonstration plants for SMEs mainly agriculture such as through drive post-harvest value addition for select commodities such as potatoes, banana, milk, and honey.

These facilities are meant to spur economic activity in rural communities, provide access to technology and training as well as an environment for innovative thinking and product development.

While presenting the CPC assessment report to the plenary session, PAC Chairperson, Valens Muhakwa said that the centres were facing a number of challenges including some working well below capacity, others did not produce what they were meant to, while there are those that had inadequate equipment.

For instance, Muhakwa said, the Rwamagana banana wine plant could not make the intended products. The problem, he said, is partly that it lacked standard equipment.

Talking about Burera Dairy, Muhakwa said that it was privatised at only Rwf270 million, yet the Government had invested over Rwf798 million as the dairy was making huge loss and the Government wanted to revive its operation.

Nyanza Ceramic CPC which was established at a tune of more than Rwf439 million did not work even once until it was privatised for over Rwf88 million.

He said that the equipment that was installed was given to a cooperative of potters in Nyanza – Gatagara Pottery – free of charge.

"After analysing the report and the issues that were identified in this programme, the parliamentary committee realised that there is no value for money from the over Rwf4 billion that was allocated for their [CPCs] establishment,” Muhakwa said.

Moreover, he said that the probe found that the overall benefit to developing farm produce through value addition, increasing the capacity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engaged in processing locally produced commodities, and helping the private sector to understand the opportunities in investing in small factories, was not achieved.

He said that responsible officials failed to provide valid reasons why CPCs were established without carrying out need assessment and business plan. This issue, he said, caused poor management of those facilities, which is one of the underlying factors for their poor performance.

Another factory, Gatsibo Leather CPC’s operations have been hindered by inadequate equipment as well as lack of maintenance of existing ones. This, Muhakwa said, had an adverse effect on the productivity of the factory.

MP Frank Habineza argued that all the CPCs should be privatised because they could not deliver needed yields under public management.

"I think privatisation can help CPCs be profitable,” he said pointing out that the Government’s role would be monitoring their performance.

Meanwhile, the Lower Chamber of Parliament also resolved to summon the Minister of Public Service and Labour (MIFOTRA) to give explanations for the issues that were found in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

This is an online system managed by MIFOTRA aimed to support the government in the efficient and cost-effective management of public servants.

The committee said that members realised that this system has not provided tangible results for the country thus far. It indicated that some Rwf2.6 billion has been invested in the project so far.

However, it expressed concern that there is an amount of funding that was given by partners which were not unaccounted for.