News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo
THE tiny Central African Republic of Rwanda is turning the screws on corruption in public offices with the recent major crackdown on suspects that has resulted in a dozen arrests of top officials.
Two Permanent Secretaries are among the top senior government officials currently languishing in police custody awaiting trials on for graft related criminal charges..
One of the suspects is believed to have bribed his way to freedom for allegedly escaping from prison, and the government has pointed an accusing fingers to powerful elements within the same government who are afraid that after the interrogations the susect would disclose more names.
The police, working under President Paul Kagme’s anti-corruption czar, the Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga, have arrested senior official from the Ministries of Education, Infrastructure, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda,the Centra Public Investment and External Finance Bureau and Strabag, a German construction firm.
The first to fall under the police dragnet in government offices was Mr. Justine Nsengiyunva, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education.
Nsengiyunva, according to news emerging from Kigali was arrested in November last year after the police were tipped off by a businessman that he {Nsengiyunva} was demanding for a bribe money before authorizing a payment order for the supply of IT equipment to the Ministry worth 99.7 Rwanda francs {USD 175,000}.
The police, working with the businessman by the name of Mr. Moses Byaruhanga, trapped the former Permanent Scretary’s accomplice Mr Ervariste Grirabo, an employee with the Central Bank of Rwanda.
According to a source in Kigali, Byaruhanga had informed the Criminal Investigation Department {CID} about the solicited bribe. The CID officers then swung into action and in turn supplied him {Byaruhanga} with RwF 2 million {USD 3,500} in marked banknotes. And at the appointed venue Byaruhanga handed the money to Gasirabo and the police pounced, arresting the later red-handed with the incriminating evidence.
The police then went for the Nsengiyunva {The PS} who reacted by trying to bribe the officers thereby creating another fresh criminal offence.
Nsengiyunva and his sidekick were immediately led away to jail pending court cases for soliciting a bribe, extortion and attempting to bribe th police officers.
But much as theb Rwandan government is committed to fighting graft and all kinds of abuse of office by publ;ic servant, there are those who want to look the other way or even abet the crime.
After about a week in jail, the former Permanent Secretary {Nsengiyunva} was later reported to have escaped.
It is, however, suspected that his escape was engineered by some powerful government officials who were afraid that, when interrogated, the suspect could implicate them in corruption.
The Prosecutor General Mr. Ngoga was recently quoted as saying that “corruption got the man in, and got him out.”
The Rwandan government is reported to have issued a warrant of his arrested, which has been circulated to the Interpol system of police and flushed all over the world. The suspect PS is still at large.
Another high profile arrest was that of Mr.Louis Munyakazi, the director of the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda.Those who kew the susopect well, says he is a man who has the look of a college professor with eyes peering out of thick-lensed spectacle and a tall, lanky frame always smartly dressed in dark brown blazers and unmatching pants, seemed the least likely candidate to be caught in a corruption probe.
But three weeks ago, Rwandan woek up to the television footage news that he had been arrested after investigations by the CID and the Prosecutor General’s office established he had embezzled a large sums of NISR money.
But the case clearly highlights the government;s intent to rout out graft is the one involving officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Central Public Investment Bureau, and Strabag, a German road construction firm.
Quuite a number of officials from these institutions have been arrested so far. The first to be arrested was Infrastructure Permanent Secretary, Vincent Gatwabuyenge for authorizing and signing off payment of over RwF 1.7 billion {USD}2,998 million} to Strabag for services the company did not provide.
The payment was for the installations Strabag was supposed to put up including residential housing for staff, stores and central building in Kigali and the small provincial town of Nyamata.
A few years ago, Strabag won a tender to build a 70-kilometres tarmac road from Kigali to the rural region of Bugesera.
Once in jail under relentless questioning Mr Gatwabeyenge is said to have divulged more details about the graft involved in construction of tht road.
In one incident, he is repprted to have told his interrogators, tht together with a Mr George Katurebe, director of the Central Public Investment and External Finance Bureau, they conspired to exonerate Strabag from payment of a RwF 456 million{USD 804,000} fine for breach of contract after the company failed to complete the road within the stipulated timeframe.
A quick investigation showed that indeed,Strabag never paid the fine, Mr. Katurebe was soon after this revelation got arrested.
The Director General of Finance at the Ministry of Infrastructure, Mr. Foustin Gacinya was no spared either. He too, was found complicit in the RwF 1.7 billion {USD 2,998 million} payment.
The head engineer in the same Ministry, Mr. Eliab Habyarimana and Jean Naptiste Habyarimana and Jean Bgarambe, two employees of Studi International- a company that the government of Rwanda hired to supervise construction of the Kigali- Bugesera road.
President Paul Kagame was recently quoted in the local media houses as saying that he will not tolerate corruption and so far, he shown that he means it. “This man is not someone to joke with”said a Kigali resident.
Local political pundits have said that Kigali is increasingly becoming too hot for a place for the corrupt.
Rwanda is a member of the East African Community which groups her together with Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, but the other states are soaking in graft, and it expected and hope that government leaders in all the partner states of the East African Community would follow suit.
Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:15:39 -0800 [08:15:39 AM CST]
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: RWANDA HAS TAKEN THE LEAD IN ROUTING OUT CORRUPTION AMONG TOP GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS; WILL OTHER COUNTRIES FOLLOW SUIT?