Habumuremyi blames Covid-19 for bounced cheques

Former Prime Minister Pierre-Damien Habumuremyi on Thursday, July 16, appeared at the Gasabo Primary Court in Kibagabaga on charges of breach of trust and issuing bounced cheques. Stating the charges against him, the prosecution said Habumuremyi issued bounced cheques totalling to about Rwf170 million to different people on behalf of his now-defunct Christian University of Rwanda. Speaking about the crime of breach of trust, the prosecution said that Habumuremyi and his university offered a supply tender to a one Jean-Bosco Nkurunziza, but before he could start his duties, they asked him to present them with Rwf10 million as security to hold onto as he fulfils his obligations. They promised to refund him the money upon execution of the tender—which he reportedly did. However, according to prosecution, Nkurunziza was refunded only Rwf5 million. For the remaining Rwf5 million, he was offered a cheque, which bounced. Habumuremyi pleaded not guilty of all the charges. In his defence, he said that the cheques the university issued were not exactly meant for payments, but rather were a form of commitment to the creditors to demonstrate that the university owed them money. In addition to this, he also attributed the university’s financial woes to the Covid-19 pandemic, which he said, hindered the institution’s ability to pay its creditors. In his defence, the former Prime Minister cited one Edmund Kazungu—one of the people that prosecution says received bounced cheques from the university. “He (Kazungu) lent Rwf28 million to Christian University of Rwanda. We signed an agreement that he will be paid back in four instalments,” he said. To date, added, we have paid him back about Rwf18.9 million of the money. “We gave him a cheque as a guarantee that we would pay him. But due to the temporary closure of universities due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we wrote to him in April and informed him of the challenges. We requested him that we should meet again and review the agreement,” he said, arguing that this was the main case for the people who received such cheques from the university. His lawyers told the judge that though a 2011 law halted the use of cheques as a guarantee, it is a culture that has remained in practice among Rwandans, and a number of people are still practising it. Here, the lawyers argued that issuing a cheque as a guarantee does not mean that their client had intentions of cheating. The lawyers also said that the law distinguishes between an institution and an individual. Thus, they argued that the dealings for which Habumuremyi is being prosecuted were not done on his individual behalf or family behalf - but rather on the behalf of the university, and therefore he may not need to be held accountable as a person. Habumuremyi himself told the court that the money in the case was only for the university as an institution – not for his personal pocket, nor for his family. His lawyers also asked the court to examine if really his case is meant to be handled by a criminal court, and not a civil or business court. Court will take time to look more into the case and decide if there is reasonable ground for Habumuremyi to be granted bail, and give its verdict in that regard on July 21.

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Habumuremyi blames Covid-19 for bounced cheques