A person who will offer a bribe in order to secure a service because there is no other means of getting it and voluntarily informs law enforcement institutions before investigation into the case commence will not be liable of corruption, the Ombudsman has said. Anastase Murekezi was speaking on Thursday while presenting the state of corruption in the country to political parties and how they can contribute to fighting graft. This was during the General Assembly of the National Consultative Forum of Political Organisations (NFPO) held in Kigali. Under the previous legislation, the Ombudsman said, a person who gave corruption and the one who received it were both subject to punishment by law, which was one of the factors contributing to low reporting of corruption cases. Some members of political parties faulted the Ombudsman’s reports for not containing prominent leaders and businesspeople implicated in corruption and related vices. However, Murekezi explained that one of the reasons was that some crimes such as embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds were not included in the definition of corruption under the previous legislation. In the current law on corruption, which was published in September, such cases are considered as corruption. “The exemption of corruption liability for people who provide information about their giving or receiving corruption before the crime starts being investigated will enable us get more information and evidence about those who take corruption, especially in public tenders,” Murekezi said. Members of the General Assembly of the National Consultative Forum of Political Organisations yesterday. Sam Ngendahimana. His office will start receiving the list of all convicts of corruption-related cases from the Supreme Court. This, he said, will facilitate the Ombudsman’s efforts to compile and draft a full publication including petty and high-level corruption such as those involving Rwf150 million and more. Citing the Rwanda Bribery Index 2018, which says that bribery in Rwanda is estimated at more than Rwf7 billion in terms of value, Murekezi said that corruption is still most prevalent in local government, traffic police, private sector, public tenders and the judiciary. Moreover, he stressed, more efforts should be invested in halting corruption in public tenders because of the huge amount of taxpayer funds at stake. “Public tenders should be offered free of corruption. When such tenders involve corruption, companies [or enterprises that participate in the bidding process] argue that if they do not offer bribes they are excluded from the competition,” he revealed. MP Christine Mukabunane, the president of Socialist Party (PS) Imberakuri, said that; “We should look at areas where corruption is most prevalent, especially as it has been realised that the big fish are not exposed in the Ombudsman’s reports and other reports on corruption. She promised that her political party will sensitise its members on reporting all corruption and injustice cases. “If there are prominent people by their ranks or huge assets, they should also be exposed so that they get severely punished to give a lesson to others,” she said. Abbas Mukama, the First Vice President of Ideal Democratic Party (PDI), said some public servants have accumulated a lot of wealth, which cannot be justified by their salaries. This, he said, points to probable misappropriation or embezzlement of public funds, which needs urgent attention. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
