Parliament summons gov’t bodies over AG report

OFFICIALS from Several public institutions will next week appear before the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to explain how taxpayers’ money was embezzled or wasted under their nose as reported by a recent report by the Auditor General.Among the institutions that will be questioned include Rwanda Development Board (RDB), King Faisal Hospital and Camerwa, the drug procurement and distribution body, among others.In total, 40 institutions are set to appear before the committee during the coming week, according to MP Jean Thierry Karemera, PAC spokesperson.Karemera could not readily state which institutions will appear first as the committee is still working on schedule.“We are yet to decide which ones will be first to appear but the big fish like RDB, King Faisal Hospital, Camerwa, the National University of Rwanda, Orinfor, NAEB, RCAA and Onatracom, must be there before others,” he said. Orinfor is the national public broadcaster; NAEB is the National Agriculture Export Board, while Onatracom is the national public transport body. “Right now, we are making a list of about 40 institutions, but 138 institutions are involved,” said the lawmaker.Early this week, the committee started dissecting the report, looking at issues such as non compliance with the law, regulations or payments and the procedures in the management of public property “and why they distrust the recommendations of the Auditor General”The 2010/11 report which is in five volumes, concerns all government ministries, districts, provinces, 30 per cent of public enterprises and public institutions of higher learning, among others.It also has audits on 15 per cent of government projects and programmes. According to the MP, the management of Kigali City, which features prominently in the report, will also be summoned.“On 23rd October, the Minister of Health will appear before PAC to be questioned on issues indicated in the performance audit on the management of medical health insurance,” Karemera said.When the Auditor General, Obadiah Biraro, presented the report to both Chambers of Parliament on June 22, he said government ministries and parastatals spent at least Rwf 5.9 billion without supporting documents during the 2010/11financial year.Much to the disappointment of MPs, the report highlighted a recurrence of past malpractices and mistakes, including embezzlement and gross mismanagement of public funds, lack of supporting documents and wasteful public spending. However, expenses that lacked official justification, or partly supported expenditure, reduced by over 50 per cent to Rwf 4.5 billion, from the previous year’s Rwf 9.7 billion.In the 2009/10 report, completely unsupported expenditure amounted to Rwf 502.7million.Biraro has reportedly warned that the lack of supporting documents intended or not, could be an avenue for misappropriation of public funds.Last week, PAC held a consultative meeting that came up with 14 resolutions aimed at harmonising the efforts of all concerned parties; public budget managers in all ministries, ministers, the police, prosecutors, and others, in stemming graft and the misuse of taxpayers’ money.One is that the Ministry of Public Service and Labour sets up a speedy framework of penalizing public servants involved in misuse of public funds as recommended by the OAG.In addition, it was resolved that the Ministry of Justice should establish a permanent mechanism for expediting trials of implicated fraudsters as well as recovering lost funds.The Legislature and the Executive must also ensure a speedy review of clauses in laws which hinder following up and recovering embezzled public funds, the meeting resolved.Transparency International ranks Rwanda the least corrupt country in the region.