Rwanda continues to maintain a lead in the war against corruption in the region, according to several reports released by Transparency International for the last four years.The report released last week by the global corruption watchdog showed Rwanda’s consistent track record in the fight against corruption among the five countries in the EAC region.The East African Bribery Index 2012 launched in Kampala last week, ranks Burundi the second least corrupt, Kenya third, while Tanzania and Uganda took the fourth and fifth positions respectively.However, this might not be a surprise to Rwanda due to standing tough measures in the country that have ensured zero tolerance to corruption.Rwanda has a bribery aggregate index of 2.5 percent Burundi; the worst ranked country last year recorded a significantly lower index of 18.8 percent, Kenya and Tanzania were 29.5 percent and 39.1 percent respectively while Uganda registered the highest bribery levels in the region with a percentage value of 40.7 percent.Yet last year in December 2011, Transparency International also found Rwanda to be the fourth least corrupt country in Africa and 47th in the world on the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).The country scored 70.8 percent, behind Mauritius with 73.2 percent, Cape Verde with 74.6 percent and Botswana which was the least corrupt African country with a score of 79.9 percent.The index ranks countries and territories from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean) based on perceived levels of public sector corruption.The 2011 CPI gave Rwanda a score of 5.1 points, ahead of countries such as South Africa and beating its East African neighbors by a large margin. Rwanda was ranked 66th in 2010 with a score of 4.0. The 5.1 score meant that Rwanda is considered one of the countries clean of corruption (above the 5.0 mark).Speaking to The Sunday Times this week, Marie Immaculee Ingabire, and Chairperson of Transparency Rwanda, said this year the country improved the scores. “Rwanda has maintained the lead against corruption because of the country’s political will and commitment compared to other countries in the region or Africa,” she said.Ingabire noted that, her institution has signed integrity pacts with the Ministry of Local Government to rein in mismanagement of public funds in local governments. The pacts were penned few months ago in Kigali with four pilot districts in Musanze, Huye, Kayonza and Rubavu and the initiative aims at curtailing graft in awarding tenders. Integrity pacts are agreements signed between the government or a district and all public sector bidders. The pacts engage all parties to abstain from corruption, disclose information and be transparent. Its implementation is monitored by an independent third party.Ingabire emphasised that strong sensitisation campaigns were needed to do away with mindset regarding corruption.Last year’s report on corruption by TR showed the likelihood of encountering bribe demand occurrences was at 1.19 percent the prevalence of bribery at 0.8 percent and the average size of bribery was Rwf 19,844.TR regularly, on an annual basis, carries out the Rwanda Bribery Index to determine the extent of corruption in the country. On several occasions, the findings of Transparency International Rwanda show that the country has taken remarkable steps in the fight against graft-related cases. “If our government continues to maintain strong political will in the war against corruption and zero tolerance to corruption, we hope by 2015 to be the least corrupt country in Africa and perhaps among the ten least corrupt countries in the world,” said Ingabire.Most of the bribes paid are in small amounts of between Rwf 1,000 to 5,000 further reinforcing the position that the poorer members of society are the ones practicing it. “Our office has been in existence for 12 years and we have maintained a clear line of advisory services to institutions by providing reports in transparent manner for the public interests,” said Obadiah Biraro, Auditor General.He stated that his institution was one of the offices that are at the forefront in fighting against graft in the country.“We enforce other agencies to be transparent and accountable. That is why Rwanda has maintained a good record of being the least corrupt country in the region,” he added, but added that the country’s improvement on Transparency International’s CPI should not be a cause for complacency.
