No corrupt official will be spared - Presidency

The Government has resolved to go after corrupt officials, Venantie Tugireyezu, the minister in the Office of the President, has said. Tugireyezu was addressing the media at a post-National Leadership Retreat conference at the Prime Minister’s office in Kigali, yesterday. A list of all the stalled government projects will be compiled and a deadline to implement them set while those projects whose delay was a result of corruption, public prosecutors will seek legal action. This is one of the sixteen resolutions which were drawn from the twelfth Leadership Retreat which was concluded on Monday evening. The Office of the Ombudsman has been releasing a list of people charged and sentenced over corruption since 2010, however, top civil servants have hardly featured. And according to Minister Tugireyezu, this is about to change. “In the fight against corruption, no one will be spared,” the minister said. “We have resolved to end a network of some leaders that foster corruption. It is clear the ‘big fish’ will not be spared,” she added. The twelfth edition of the three-day leadership retreat was held at the Rwanda Defence Forces Combat Training Centre in Gabiro, Eastern Province. Chairing the retreat, President Paul Kagame urged top leaders of the country to move swiftly to deliver on government projects and use the retreat to assess themselves and resolve to serve the country selflessly. While speaking at the media conference yesterday, Prof. Anastase Shyaka, the chief executive of the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), explained that leaders who attended the retreat were reminded the basics of good governance. “The fact that we have a President with a constant anti-corruption stance is a great chance for our country,” Shyaka said, adding that Rwanda’s current system is “incompatible with corrupt leaders.” “Our government’s reputation is based on delivering good services to the people,” he said. Among the stalled projects that were discussed at the retreat include the Gishoma Peat Power plant that was expected to produce 15 megawatts of electricity and the delayed construction of Kigali Central Prison in Mageragere area of the city. The leaders made several other resolutions, many of which are about improving the welfare of the Rwandan people and meeting the country’s development targets. “We are going to change the way we work; we are going to be more accountable and we will deliver better services,” Tugireyezu said. Prof. Shyaka acknowledged that more work needs to be done if the leaders are to deliver according to the expectations. “There is room for improvement in the way we deliver on government programmess in all the sectors; that’s the most important thing to take away from the retreat,” the RGB chief executive said.

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No corrupt official will be spared - Presidency