MPs question grounds for proposed agencies

Lawmakers this week sought explanation as to why the government has proposed the setting up of new public institutions, with some describing the move as a “costly venture”.The MPs sitting on the Chamber of Deputies’ Standing Committee on Economy and Trade were scrutinising three bills on the establishment of a new bodyto replace the Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IRST) – the National Industrial Research and Development Agency (NIRDA); the bill establishing the Rwanda Standards Board (RSB), and another one establishing the National Inspectorate and Competition Authority (NICA). Some of the proposed agencies will replace the existing ones with adjusted mandates, while others will take up some of the responsibilities currently handled by existing institutions, which are thought to be overstretched.MP Jean Damascene Gasarabwe said: “I am really wondering ... about these laws we make. What will the current RBS (Rwanda Bureau of Standards) do now? It looks like we continue setting up bits and bits of institutions, making them many and expensive for the economy.”“Won’t these many institutions, which ought to be in one institution, become so costly?” he asked.Once the RSB bill is enacted into law, the current parastatal – the RBS which sets standards and conducts pertinent product quality inspections, will be reconstituted, according to the government.Dr Mark Cyubahiro Bagabe, the Director General of RBS, laboured to explain why there was need to establish new institutions, suggesting that RBS was overwhelmed.In 2002 when RBS was set up, he said, the national economy was “so small” and government had “no rationale” for creating such big institutions.Previously, five regulatory aspects, including setting standards, laboratory testing, industry certification and metrology, were treated as units under RBS.But it was clear that later, every unit would have its own fully-fledged caretaker institution, as per international best practices, he pointed out.“Each of these functions had been downgraded depending on the context at the time,” Bagabe said. “The government reviewed this issue in 2010. It came up with a policy review, which concluded that five new institutions should be created as the responsibilities of each unit were growing bigger by the day. Before then, that rationale was not possible because establishing individual institutions and equipping and staffing them would have been very costly.”One such unit – Metrology, the science of measurements which includes scientific, industrial and legal metrology, is an institution on its own “as per international best practices.”On the creation new regulator – NICA, François Kanimba, the Minister of Trade and Industry, argued that the new body will carry out work different from what the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) is doing.“NICA is really not a second rate regulator because its responsibilities and the things it will do are also equal, and of great importance, to what RURA does depending on what it regulates.”According to the bill on the establishment of the new regulator, NICA’s responsibilities would include carrying out safety and quality inspection of product design, production process, product, services and determination of their conformity with specific legal requirements at the point of production, distribution, sale and entry in Rwanda.The bill stipulates that, “however NICA will not cover regulation of pharmaceutical drugs, food fortification, illicit drugs and other specific sectors regulated by MINAGRI (Ministry of Agriculture), REMA (Rwanda Environment Management Authority) and RURA.”Meanwhile, the government says the responsibilities for the newly proposed RSB will include, developing and publishing accepted national standards; disseminatinginformation on standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment activities, monitoring and contributing to international and regional standardisation activities on behalf of stakeholders and to adopt them at the national level.According to another bill, NIRDA will replace IRST, and is meant to facilitate a stronger link between research and industry by carrying out research on appropriate technologies for value addition to Rwandan raw materials, and is expected to establish a strong foundation for agro-processing and facilitate rapid technology transfer from other countries.The parliamentary committee members on Wednesday visited RBS and IRST premises on a fact-finding mission they hoped would inform their legislation process.