Kigali city refutes 2008 audit report

KIGALI - Kigali City Mayor, Aisa Kirabo Kacyira has dismissed the recently released Auditor General’s (AG) report that implicates City Council as having defaulted on loans amounting to Rwf 970m.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

KIGALI - Kigali City Mayor, Aisa Kirabo Kacyira has dismissed the recently released Auditor General’s (AG) report that implicates City Council as having defaulted on loans amounting to Rwf 970m.

The 2008 AG report released on Wednesday shows that the city acquired two separate loans of Rwf 741m from African Development Corporation (ADC) and Rwf 228m from Ecobank which were supposed to be serviced before the end of last year, but have since not paid anything.

However, Kirabo during a press conference yesterday that besides the Ecobank loan which she said they are only remaining with Rwf 35m to service, the ADC loan was serviced and they owe nothing.

"We don’t owe ADC any money. The loan we had acquired was serviced and if the report says that we have failed to fulfill our obligations, then it’s wrong.”

"Yes, we exceeded the timeframe within which we were supposed to have completed the payments due to some inconveniences, but we later serviced it all,” Kirabo said.

It is reportedly said that KCC accumulated over Rwf 100m in interest for failure to pay back the loan on time.

According to the Mayor, the loan was for expropriating residents of Akumunigo in Nyarugenge district where affordable houses at low costs would be constructed.

"We acquired this loan because we were running out of time as requested by the World Bank which wanted to avail infrastructure like roads in this area,” she said.

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