Auditor General (AG), Alexis Kamuhire speaking at Rwanda parliament
The Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG) annual audit report for the year ended has shown a slight increase in the proportion of Government expenditure, decline in unlawful expenditures and an increase in clean audits.
The Auditor General (AG), Alexis Kamuhire presented the annual audit report for the year ended June 30, 2023 to both Parliament this April 24, 2024 in which Government expenditure audited, raised to 96% from 95% in the previous year- that is from Rwf4,981 Billion to Rwf5,193 Billion.
Kamuhire revealed that the audited year issued 222 financial audit and (220) compliance audit reports for the financial year ended 30 June 2023 and additionally carried out sixteen (16) performance audits, seven (7) IS audits, and ten (10) special audits.
The performance audits focused on the areas of national interest in agriculture, education, social protection, environment, investment, ICT, finance and economy sectors.
The Auditor General told the parliamentarians that compared to the previous year, there was a gradual improvement in audit outcomes.
“The proportion of audited entities receiving unqualified opinions in financial audits increased to 92% from 68% in the previous year,” Kamuhire said.
“Similarly, those receiving unqualified opinions in compliance audits of laws and regulations on public spending rose to 69% from 61%, and for compliance with laws and regulations to realize Value for Money, the entities receiving unqualified opinions increased to 59% from 57%. Furthermore, the percentage of fully implemented recommendations rose to 59% from 57%,” he added.
The current year’s audits utilized a preventive audit approach to review contracts. With this audit approach, the audits identified financial losses amounting to Rwf 6.92 Billion that were likely to be recovered.
The OAG report also noted that unlawful expenditure decreased by 60% compared to the previous year, decreasing to Rwf 2.57 billion from Rwf 6.45 billion.
“There is still a need for Chief Budget Managers to put in place strong internal controls to avoid them,” Kamuhire stated in his remarks.
The AG attributed the registered progress to three factors, including compliance with public financial management (PFM) among the leaders of entities in question, the existence of a stable Integrated Financial Management Information and System (IFMIS), and collaboration between public entities including the Office of the Auditor General on how to make better performance.
The OAG is committed to conducting impactful audits of government institutions to ensure that public resources are being utilized for national priorities and the well-being of Rwandan citizens.
Some Gaps
In accordance with the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) targets to increase entities with clean audits from 50% in 2016 to 80% in 2024, the AG said that this was achieved in terms of financial statements, but there is a need for improvement in terms of compliance with legislation.
Failure to comply, saw some budget entities return in the bad books of the annual AGs report especially as a result of delays in executing contracts and delivering on proposed projects in some of the major development areas.
For example, in the education sector, the proposed hospitality institute worth Rwf 10 billion from government and 10 billion from investors was not built.
Inside the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), the report noted that 1.8 million books were delayed from 286 to three years before getting to destination and delays in print order for books with Rwf 2 billion delayed for over 100 days.
The report also showed that the government could have saved Rwf500 million in a laptop supply tender, if it was lawfully offered through the Rwanda On-Line E-Procurement System.
While Rwanda has made significant progress in healthcare, the report indicated that some health facilities (97 hospitals) don’t have water and washing places including some in Kigali city.
The report also showed that land management and use was demanding since out of the 30 districts, 14 districts didn’t have a master plan and only five have approved plans. This is on top of delays of land permits.
The report also showed that 22 institutions with property worth Rwf15 billion in assets remained unused, and some didn’t have Board of Governors- including the national carrier (Rwandair), Water and Sanitation Corporation (Wasac), Bella flowers among others- which could result in taking decisions without oversight.
