Obadiah Biraro-The Auditor General
The Auditor General has indicated there is persistent negligence by some government institutions to account for public funds.
Obadiah Biraro the auditor general said Monday while presenting the 2014/2015 Auditor General’s Report, before the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Finance .
The report revealed that a total of Rwf 18.7 billion was uncounted for by Rwanda Development Board, University of Rwanda, Rwanda Agricultural Board, Rwanda Education Board and the former Energy, Water and Sanitation Corporation.
Significant weaknesses in accounting at the University of Rwanda led to loss of Rwf 502.5 million that was attributed to negligence of accountants.
Another Rwf 1billion attributed to expenditure lacked supporting documents.
“There was a decline in the level of implementing recommendations from our office in regards to the affected bodies,” said Biraro in reference to the gross losses in the past financial year.
A part from central government institutions, local government has even much bigger problems.
The report indicated that 61 contracts in the construction sector worth Rwf 122.5 billion had not been handed over by the concerned district authorities by the time of the deadline for audits.
“This was noticeable in 61 of the pending 77 contracts yet to be submitted,” Biraro noted thus implying the amount might be much higher.
To make the matter worse, Biraro indicates, “There is a growing practice of unreliable financial statements presented by boards and districts to the OAG.”
Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) was early this year singled out in regard to malpractices that led to several officials from this institution being implicated in a financial mismanagement scandal.
“The problem cuts across so many districts and boards and culprits should be dealt with,” stated an officer from the Auditor general’s office who declined to be named.
The Auditor General has also identified poor utilization of the document tracking and workflow management system (DWTM), delays in implementation of regional information and communication technologies at RDB.
He said from this weakness, the institution fell short in attracting foreign investment in the country.
