At least Rwf20 billion of development aid meant for 2012/2013 districts budget support from the central government is yet to be utilised.This was disclosed yesterday as officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the Ministry of Local Government and Rwanda Local Development Support Fund (RLDSF) together with districts officials, evaluated the execution of the 2012/2013 budget.This amount is supposed to have been utilised by the end of June, otherwise it will be returned to the donors.The money was meant for VUP projects meant to reduce poverty and promote infrastructure in almost all the districts.Nyamagabe, Nyaruguru, and Ngoma were cited among the districts which haven’t utilised much of the money.The money is allocated to districts considering the number of district population, and the number of people living below poverty line. District officials said the delay in executing the budget resulted from procurement process, procedures which led to delays in disbursement of the funds.However, Elias Bayingana, the Director General of the National Budget in the Ministry of Finance faulted district budget officers for the delays, saying once all requirements are fulfilled the money is ready to be disbursed for projects executions.Expressing hope Noting that the delay in disbursement of the funds didn’t impact on the development projects, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Vincent Munyeshyaka, said within the remaining three months to close the fiscal year it may be hard to have such amount of money utilised but it is possible.Munyeshyaka said most of the districts have executed their budget at 55-60 per cent.Districts officials expressed hope that the money would be utilised before the close of the current fiscal year since there are still pending projects.“We have development projects which are now being carried out, invoices for our stakeholders which are still pending, we are ready to execute the budget by the end of the fiscal year,” said Egide Kayitasire, the Executive Secretary of Nyaruguru District.Munyeshyaka called for better coordination and communication between districts and the Ministry of Finance to simplify the process of funds disbursement.Participants agreed that by mid April, all districts should have utilised their budget money and those who fail due to different reasons communicate it so that the remaining can be transferred to other activities.The Director General of RLDSF, Laetitia Nkunda, commended districts for putting funds to good use, as 70 per cent of the designed projects have been executed.
