Rwanda
Public Procurement Authority are aiming to set up their own codes by the end of 2008.4 ● Since January 2008 performance contracts (known as imihigo5) have been instituted in Rwandan households, committing each family to fight corruption in its daily activities. The president initiated the idea for such contracts in July 2006 in connection with decentralised local districts.6
Some hope of improvement in public procurement? Figures from 1 June 2007 to 30 May 2008 published by the Office of the Public Prosecutor provide a general overview of corruption and embezzlement cases currently under legal proceedings in Rwanda.7 During this period 502 such cases were brought to the office’s attention. Among these, 269 were subject to prosecution, forty were closed and 213 received court judgments, including prison sentences.8 The work of the Public Procurement Appeals Committee is a good indicator of the scale of the problem in public procurement. Although the committee has been operational only since July 2007, forty-six complaints concerning irregularities in the awarding of public contracts were submitted from 1 August 2007 to 15 May 2008.9 Actions taken by the committee include:10 ● cancelling a contract and launching a new call for tenders;
● cancelling a decision made by the public authorities and granting a contract to the aggrieved bidder; and ● compensating an aggrieved bidder when the public contract had already been signed and could no longer be cancelled due to financial losses the government would incur. In thirteen cases in which legal action was taken, the public authorities’ decision was cancelled and the plaintiff won the case. In fifteen cases the public authorities’ decision was upheld. The other cases did not comply with the appeals procedure and were not considered by the committee. This does not mean, however, that parties have been cleared of the charge of dubious practices. Forms of corruption associated with public procurement often involve non-compliance with procedures, such as dividing tenders into smaller units to allow contracts to be awarded by private agreement and thus bypass public calls for bids, and collusion, whereby a public official on the contract award committee gives preferential treatment to an economic agent.11
Corruption in micro-finance institutions Following years of conflict and unrest in Rwanda, and the consequent poverty of Rwandan society, micro-finance institutions (MFIs) were set up in response to the critical need for access to financial services by low-income Rwandans. In an MFI, individuals deposit funds into cooperative
4 Interviews with Ruzindana Clément, director of the department of services enterprises, Private Sector Federation, and Kayiranga Rukumbi Bernard. 5 The word imihigo comes from the verb guhiga, which means ‘to compete’. In this context, it means to determine the level at which each family combats corruption daily and compare their achievements. 6 See www.minaloc.gov.rw. 7 Document put at the disposal of Transparency Rwanda by the inspector general, Jules Marius Ntete, Office of the Public Prosecutor. 8 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Rfce M. Ruberwa, prosecutor in charge of corruption offences. 9 Interview with and documents from Ruganintwali Pascal, chairperson of the Appeals Committee of the public procurement market. 10 Other information on Appeals Committee decisions is available at www.ntb.gov.rw. 11 Results of investigations by the Office of the Ombudsman and reported at a workshop organised by Transparency Rwanda, 25 July 2008.
205