Featuring:
*Two Years of H.E. Paul Kagame after elections
*Key Sector by Sector development review
*Uganda exports to Rwanda

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This presentation is designed and organised by the New Vision Internet Department.

Editor Davis J. Weddi

Rwanda fights graft

THE fight against graft in government is at its peak in the history of Rwanda. Some government officials including ministers have been forced to resign while others have been prosecuted over corruption related cases. The office of the Ombudsman (Inspector General of Government) has played a key role in this campaign. In an interview with Arthur Baguma, the Ombudsman Tito Rutaremaza explains the magnitude of corruption in Rwanda and measures being taken to check this vice.

Do you think there is a political will to fight corruption in Rwanda?

There is a political will to fight corruption in Rwanda. In fact we are lucky to have a President willing to fight graft with all the means at his disposal. Corruption is in three layers, at the local, technical and political levels. At the political level it has really gone down because ministers are no longer directly in charge of finances or procurement. Today the minister’s work is control and political guidance of the ministry. However corruption is still rampant at the technical level.

Cite examples where implicated officials have faced the due course of the law.

When I was in parliament, we censured five ministers including the former Prime minister, Pierre Rwigema. We censured all these ministers over corruption related cases. It is serious; you can’t practice corruption with impunity in this country and walk away scot-free.

Was the grabbing of posh cars from the government officials justified?

One would argue that these cars are needed for persons having to travel in remote areas with poor road-networks while on official work No no .., we want to live within our means. It is unfortunate that some leaders in Africa want to live beyond their means. For us we saw this was as a problem, a minister in a developing country can’t afford to drive a car like say one driven by a German minister. Buying and maintaining these cars was very costly and a big burden on our economy. A lot of money was going through these posh cars, going to the garages all the time. Here corruption was aided especially at the technical level-maintenance and servicing of the cars. Now a minister has to own his own car and pay his or her driver. When on official duty the officials are told to use private transport service providers. For instance if you are to take the example of this office (IGG), We are always out in the field but since a new system came into force, we have saved a lot of money compared to last year. Yet like I said most of our work is in the field, so the other institutions must be saving even more now.

Has graft fight checked the poverty levels?

Poverty has got several dimensions and causes. Corruption alone can’t lower poverty levels significantly but certainly it helps. There are structural loopholes and other problems, which lead to poverty. Fighting graft is one of the ways of lowering poverty levels but it is not enough to deal with the issue completely.

Do you ever get death threats from people you are investigating?

When you have a head of state willing to be by your side in fighting corruption, you are sure that no minister or official can dare touch you. We are imitating the President on this. I haven’t got any cases of threats but of course they might arise any time. But with the law in place and the political will to protect me, I just have to be courageous and push for the cause. If I fail it will be my individual weakness because I have all the safeguards to do my work.

How big is the problem of corruption in Rwanda?

It is quite big and challenging. We registered multiple cases of corruption this year, but we don’t have enough manpower to handle all of them. So we forward some of the cases to Police and others to the Attorney General. When we started this office, the major complaints were mainly from government offices and land disputes. Most of the complaints about land disputes within Kigali revolve around town plots. But in other places like in Ruhengere-it is about many wives fighting for land because of the high level of polygamy in this area. We also have a problem of refugees who want to claim their land. Even those who fled the country in 1994 are coming back and also want to reclaim their land.

Do you think government has the capacity to handle all these issues?

Yes, certainly we are ably doing so; we have solved about 80% of the land dispute complaints. Of the 7,000 cases recorded since we started working, about 80% of the cases have been resolved. We encourage organs of the state to settle problems in their respective areas. You should also note that some public servants under the former regime were not paid their terminal benefits. Some people supplied the previous regimes with logistics and other support services but never got paid. All these have to be addressed by the current government.

But corruption takes several forms and is quite complex, are you really getting to the heart of the issue?

We have four units in the office of the Ombudsman executing this cause but one unit in particular closely checks corruption in government. This is the unit dealing with the declaration of income and assets by leaders right from the President down to the cashier. About 3,000 officials declare their wealth and income annually. We also have a prevention unit which receives complaints of people. Corruption has generally been checked partly through vigorous sensitisation of the population about this vice. Officials from the IGG’s office visit the communities and discuss with opinion leaders of the respective areas, workers and religious leaders on how they can be whistle blowers. Then at a later level, which is category three, the local community is brought on board and encouraged to openly log in their complaints. The sensitisation also goes to schools and other institutions. The third unit is one, which has to fight corruption. If you sit down and make inquiries you won’t succeed. Our state has organs dealing with accountability and control. We say let us go and see whether a given system is working well. We discuss with the department heads and ask if there are bottlenecks or loopholes of corruption. We look at how the department or institution is working and whether the work procedure is bureaucratic. We check if there are internal mechanisms of control in that system and if the mechanisms are there, how are they utilised. We also have external mechanisms of control. After all this is done, a report is made with recommendations depending on the findings. And we do this check routinely in all departments of government.

Do you have problems with some people under-declaring or even being uncooperative in declaring their wealth?

We don’t have such cases yet. Now we are looking at declarations of last year and we shall compare them with those of this year. We shall cross-check with what they declared last year and what they have declared this year. If we find one with something three-fold bigger than his salary, we shall ask him or her how did you add this much in such a short period of time? We shall also go to the banks to establish if what all the leaders declare is true.

How is your budget?

We have got a small budget of about 760million Rwanda Francs per annum. But once you are sober in using this money it can do all the work you want to do. It is about prioritising. And this is what I always tell my colleagues in other departments. Because resources have never been enough anyway.

How do you compare corruption in your country to others in the developing world?

We don’t compare ourselves with others. In the region some countries are stronger than us in the corruption fight drive. We do for our own, we can’t follow other countries. We have vision 2020 to be at an upper level-to be among the less poor countries. Even those who fled the country in 1994 are coming back and also want to reclaim their land.

Do you think government has the capacity to handle all these issues?

Yes, certainly we are ably doing so; we have solved about 80% of the land dispute complaints. Of the 7,000 cases recorded since we started working, about 80% of the cases have been resolved. We encourage organs of the state to settle problems in their respective areas. You should also note that some public servants under the former regime were not paid their terminal benefits. Some people supplied the previous regimes with logistics and other support services but never got paid. All these have to be addressed by the current government.

But corruption takes several forms and is quite complex, are you really getting to the heart of the issue?

We have four units in the office of the Ombudsman executing this cause but one unit in particular closely checks corruption in government. This is the unit dealing with the declaration of income and assets by leaders right from the President down to the cashier. About 3,000 officials declare their wealth and income annually. We also have a prevention unit which receives complaints of people. Corruption has generally been checked partly through vigorous sensitisation of the population about this vice. Officials from the IGG’s office visit the communities and discuss with opinion leaders of the respective areas, workers and religious leaders on how they can be whistle blowers. Then at a later level, which is category three, the local community is brought on board and encouraged to openly log in their complaints. The sensitisation also goes to schools and other institutions. The third unit is one, which has to fight corruption. If you sit down and make inquiries you won’t succeed. Our state has organs dealing with accountability and control. We say let us go and see whether a given system is working well. We discuss with the department heads and ask if there are bottlenecks or loopholes of corruption. We look at how the department or institution is working and whether the work procedure is bureaucratic. We check if there are internal mechanisms of control in that system and if the mechanisms are there, how are they utilised. We also have external mechanisms of control. After all this is done, a report is made with recommendations depending on the findings. And we do this check routinely in all departments of government.