Eight Top Government Official Arrested over Misuse of Funds
“When you know you have the necessary, in this case, a budget of Rwf120 billion, that money cannot just disappear, and year after year nothing has changed or improved. We cannot be like the ones who use a sieve to carry water. We have the ability to think, to do the work,” President Paul Kagame recently said while in Southern Province.
Eight top government officials have been arrested over misuse of funds, Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) confirmed on Saturday.
The Bureau says it has arrested Jérôme Gasana, the former Director-General of the Workforce Development Agency, WDA together with the former Director in Charge of Administration and Finance, ex- Project Coordinator and the in charge Human Resources Management.
Others were Human Resource Officer and the head of the Investment Department at Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), head of Logistics and Administration and ex- Director of Administration and Finance from Water and Sanitation Corporation (WASAC) .
Their arrest comes after the Auditor General’s report indicated that there was mismanagement of public funds in institutions where they were involved with the execution or monitoring of the use of public funds.
The Auditor General’s report has highlighted continued mismanaged of public funds in government institutions but received criticism that those involved in such misuse of funds sometimes cannot be held accountable.
A tweet from the Bureau states that investigation in other Institutions which are mentioned in the AGs report continue, extending yet another sweep of government officials to, “face justice and embezzled public funds be recovered in accordance with the law.”
Another institution that has been highlighted several times for gross mismanagement in the report is Energy, Development Corporation Limited (EDCL).
This year’s report indicates that there was wasteful expenditure, unauthorised expenditure and funds diverted or fraudulently utilised, irregular expenditure in form of unsupported expenditure and partially supported expenditure with all these accounting for over Rwf 5.6 billion.