Members of Parliament have called for scaled up efforts to tackle graft as corruption convicts increase.
The number of people convicted of corruption crimes increased by 36 percent over the last three fiscal years.
These rose up from 210 in 2018/2019 to 236 in 2019/2020 and 286 convicts in 2020/2021, according to the 2020/2021 activity report of the office of the Ombudsman.
Such has been a result of the growing number of people who report corruption, and the establishment of specialised chambers to try economic crimes in the Intermediate Courts.
It was during a session held on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, that the Chamber of Deputies adopted its Committee on Political Affairs and Gender’s assessment of the 2020/2021 activity report of the Office of the Ombudsman.
Though the rising numbers are an unfortunate case, the silver lining is in the fact that people now report corruption.
MP Valens Muhakwa expressed concern over the growing trend in reported convicts, noting however that it is a good thing corruption cases are identified and punished.
"As cases are exposed, people will fear to commit corruption or related crimes. But I have concern over their increasing trend. I would like the committee to reassure me on the rise in these corruption crimes,” he said.
"We should also look at the positive side, there has been an improvement in sensitising citizens to report such cases,” he added.
MP Elisabeth Mukamana, Vice Chairperson of the Committee on Political Affairs and Gender said that thanks to the current legislation, [some] citizens are no longer hiding the cases of corruption solicitation, rather they provide information, which leads to the increase in the number of the arrested culprits.
Also, the fact that whistle-blowers provide information on corruption cases and are protected, it makes it easy for offenders to be pursued [by the judiciary], and contributes to working in transparency, she explained.
The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2020 by Transparency International indicated that Rwanda ranked the 4th least corrupt country in Africa with 54 percent points, following Seychelles, Botswana and Cape Verde.
Meanwhile, the Ombudsman’s report suggested that there is a need to step up anti-corruption efforts, citing the Citizen Report Card 2020 by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) which showed that corruption is still found in different sectors, mainly in job offer at 37.7 percent, and local government [services] at 27.9 percent.
MP Christine Mukabunani said that "there are corruption cases of teacher placements in schools.”
Law revision
Given that the national policy on fighting corruption was established in 2012, MP Mukamana said it should be revised in order to reflect the current realities including the consideration of the developments registered since then, such as the revision of the anti-graft law in 2018.
Article 19 of the law enacted in August 13, 2018 on fighting against corruption, stipulates that a person who gives or receives an illegal benefit with the aim of helping justice organs to get evidences for the offence of corruption is not considered as having committed an offence, if he or she informs the judicial organs before the occurrence of the act.
The same article adds that there is no criminal liability for a person who gives or receives an illegal benefit and informs the justice organs before the commencement of criminal investigation by providing information and evidence.
Under the previous law, a person who gave corruption and the one who received it were both subject to punishment, which was one of the factors contributing to low reporting of corruption cases according to the Office of the Ombudsman.