Military officers accused of embezzling Rwf 700m

Military prosecutors have charged six officers including one colonel and five captains for failing to account for almost Rwf700 million from Horizon Construction, an engineering regiment of the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF). Horizon was contracted by the Ministry of Agriculture to construct dykes within the Gashora wetland but investigations carried out on the project revealed that up to 700 million was not properly accounted for. “According to results from a topographic expertise, the constructors did less than what they were expected to do, just to make a cut for their own benefits,” prosecutor Kagiraneza Kayihura read from the charge sheet. The accused include Lt. Col. Paul Semana, acting Commanding Officer of Horizon Construction, together with captains Denis Rwamo (Project Manager) and Eliphase Ndikuyeze the Accountant. Others in the case are Capt. John Uwintwari, Richard Nuwamanya and Lt Nicolas Nzayirambaho. The military prosecution said the entire project was to cost Rwf 3.4bn but after carrying out investigations on the already accomplished workload, they noticed a huge disparity between the volume of work completed and the amount disbursed. Military prosecutors explained that the accused were supposed to use 300,785 cubic metres of soil to build a dyke of 3 metres high, but only preferred to use 161,145 cubic metres of soil for a dyke 1.79 metres high. In addition to failing to account for the millions of francs, military prosecution also accused the group for mismanagement of different inputs meant for the project like uncontrolled use of fuel and different machinery. On top of these charges, Capt. Denis Rwamo is separately accused of using the institution’s labour force in his private maize farm and yet they kept drawing a public salary. All the accused denied the charges and pleaded innocent. “There was no breach of contract and MINAGRI has never complained about any non completion of work,” said the seemingly confident Semana as he presented to the court different correspondences between MINAGRI and MINADEF and other supporting documents that he said proved his innocence. Semana and his defence lawyer Charles Shema questioned the professionalism and capacity of the expert who evaluated their work at the site. As arguments between prosecution and defence got at peak, the session presided over by Maj Marc Sebaganji decided to summon Prisma Consult, the company that was contracted by Horizon Ltd to make topographic expertise at the site. Court also instructed that another independent expert be hired to make an independent evaluation of the work and compare it to what is stipulated in the contract.The trial was adjourned to July 24. Ends

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Military officers accused of embezzling Rwf 700m