Accountability: Over 100 public entities and projects to appear before MPs over audit queries

The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is set to conduct public hearings from June 25 to July 15 for institutions and projects that were identified with irregularities in the management of public finances, as shown by the recent report.m by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. It is expected that senior officials, chief budget managers, and staff members from 109 public entities and projects in question will be appearing before PAC under such enquiries, according to information from Parliament. ALSO READ: Unlawful public expenditures fall by 25% The hearings will be held through video conferencing for some public entities, and in-person appearance before PAC for others. PAC members will be seated in its room at Parliament’s premises as the representatives of public entities and other staff members will be responding to questions about issues of mismanagement of public funds raised by the OAG's report presented to Parliament on May 6 by Auditor General Alexis Kamuhire. Slow progress in implementing the Auditor General’s recommendations This year’s PAC hearings take place when the report shows, among other findings, slow progress in the implementation of the Auditor General’s recommendations. Out of 4,983 audit recommendations given to public entities in the previous year’s audits, 60 per cent were fully implemented – indicating just one percentage point increase from the preceding performance – 15 per cent were partially implemented while 25 per cent were not implemented. Yet, the report stated that the implementation of the Auditor General’s recommendations enable improvement in public financial management systems and help ensure that public resources are put to good use – for national priorities and the wellbeing of citizens. Gaps in contract management: cases of delayed and stalled projects While proper contract management is a key driver for achieving effective and efficient use of public finance and providing good service to the public, the report highlighted gaps in the execution of contracts, indicating that they are among cross-cutting issues identified by the audits. They include cases of delayed contracts – whereby the initial contract period had elapsed yet works were still ongoing. In the year ended on June 30, 2024, 17 contracts worth more than Rwf130 billion, compared to projects worth more than Rwf551.9 billion for the year ended on June 2023, the OAG’s report showed. The OAG indicated that its audits found 23 cases of stalled construction projects worth Rwf19 billion for 2024 down from Rwf38 billion for 2023. Stalled projects refer to schemes that have been halted due to various reasons with a possibility to be resumed and completed. OAG helps identify and recover potential losses in project billing, design According to the report the OAG continues to use a preventive audit approach to review contracts before their implementation or while they are still being implemented. This audit approach helped to identify financial losses while there was still a chance for recovery. Follow up on audits to assess the progress that the management of entities in question made to recover or adjust excess amounts in bills of quantities and payments in the previous year, showed that public entities recovered or adjusted the inflated bills of quantities by Rwf9.29 billion out of Rwf9.39 billion reported with a chance to recover. ALSO READ: ‘Preventive audits’ could save billions of Rwandan francs lost in public projects However, this year, the audits noted new cases of financial losses amounting to more than Rwf913 million likely to be recovered. The losses resulted from contracts that were not properly designed, inadequate monitoring of construction projects, and review of invoices before payment, the report observed.

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Accountability: Over 100 public entities and projects to appear before MPs over audit queries