Musoni to appear before Senate FARG inquiry today

The Minister for Cabinet Affairs; Protais Musoni, will today appear before the Senatorial Social Affairs Commission to answer queries pertaining to the controversial housing project of Genocide survivors; The New Times reports. Musoni’s appearance was approved by 15 of the 22 Senators who voted last week to have him appear before the Commission. FARG is a government instituted fund aimed at supporting vulnerable survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and according to the report, the fund has been mismanaged over the past decade. Musoni is expected to be quizzed about several issues concerning the role of the Ministry of Local Government in following up on housing projects for vulnerable Genocide survivors. He is the immediate former Minister of Local Government. When contacted Sunday Musoni confirmed to The New Times that he would appear before the Senate over the issue and he was confident and prepared to answer all the questions. “Yes, I am appearing before the Commission on Tuesday, that’s what the letter from the Prime Minister says. I am confident and prepared to answer all the questions they will pose,” he said. He admitted that there have been many mistakes within FARG since 2008. “There were very many mistakes in 2008, and when we discussed it in the 2007 government retreat, there was frustration that the issue of housing for survivors was yet to be resolved more than a decade later,” he said. On the issue of mismanagement, Musoni explained that stern measures had been taken and more specifically, action was taken against those found to have grossly mismanaged construction materials. “There were measures taken to handle the issue of mismanagement. For example, in 2008, 99 people were held accountable and others expelled for mismanagement of these materials,” he said. Musoni also talked about the issue of the discrepancies in the statistics of FARG beneficiaries, saying that it has remained a problem for many years. “When we started off, IBUKA, FARG and local leaders all had different figures. To solve the issue, we asked the National Institute of Statistics to carry out a thorough census, but it also had anomalies. I commissioned another census but I unfortunately left MINALOC before the results,” he said. Musoni’s appearance will seal discussions on the report that has also seen James Musoni (former Minister for Finance), Christine Nyatanyi (State Minister for Social welfare) put on a list of people the Senate wanted to quiz. Ends