Seventy public officials indicted over missing funds

The National Public Prosection Authority (NPPA) has indicted a total of 74 public officails, including permanent secretaries, over mismanagement of taxpayers’ money. Without mentioning names, the Inspector-General of the National Prosecution Authority, Jules Marius Ntete, said case files for the officials were opened as a result of 2011/12 Auditor-General’s report which highlighted that Rwf850 million was unaccounted for. On the list, whose content Ntege announced yesterday, are two permanent secretaries and two directors-general. The spokesperson of the Prosecution Alain Mukuralinda, (L) together with Agnes Mukagashugi Deputy prosecutor listen to a question from a journalist. Others are directors of administration and finance and members of internal tender committees. “We filed cases against 74 top government officials, including officials at the ministry level and directors-general of government institutions. At the district level, we filed cases against 51 people and four people at the sector level,” said Ntete, while presenting the Prosecution’s achievements over the past three years. Speaking during a media briefing in Kigali, yesterday, Prosecutor-General Richard Muhumuza emphasised that no one is above the law irrespective of their status. “No one is indispensible before the law, anyone accused of a crime is prosecuted irrespective of their status. The reason we don’t mention names is because some of these people are still under investigation,” he said. So far, Rwf26.5 million has been recovered from 55 government officials as fines for financial mismanagement. some of the slides shown during the press briefing. (Photos by Timothy Kisambira) Muhumuza said: “Generally, in 20013/2014 fiscal year, we invested a lot of efforts in ensuring that we do away with case backlogs. This year, 28, 697 cases were received by the prosecution and, among those, 96.4 per cent have been reviewed and, as a result, 33,958 cases were filed in courts and tried.” Officials say about 8,000 cases filed in the prosecution were dropped due to several reasons. Muhumuza also said the conviction rate has gone up since 2009 mainly due to use of doctrines and jurisprudences. In 2009 the conviction rate was at 76.60 per cent, while this year it stands at 90.6 per cent, he said.

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Seventy public officials indicted over missing funds