Rwanda lost Rwf5.6bn on irregular public expenditure between 2017-2018, claims report

A new report released by Auditor General notified the Rwandan parliament that the country has lost more than Rwf5.6 billion in the 2017-2018 financial year.

While presenting the report to Parliament for the fiscal year ended on June 30, 2018, Auditor General Obadiah Biraro opined that his audits reached cross-cutting findings of irregular expenditure. The irregular expenditures were in the form of unsupported expenditure, partially supported expenditure, wasteful expenditure, unauthorised expenditure and funds diverted or fraudulently utilised, as reported by The New Times.

While welcoming the accomplished improvements, he emphasized that the Rwandan government need to give more efforts in the attainment of proper public funds management. The figure provided by him shows irregular expenditures in the report, which shows there has been a 68 percent decline in irregular expenditure from Rwf17.6 billion in 2016 to Rwf5.68 billion in 2018 respectively.

"This is indicative of an improvement in our Public Financial Management (PFM) systems and controls when it comes to recording and accounting for expenditure," the Auditor General opined. The audits for 2017-2018 covered 173 public entities and projects.

On the other hand, the audits also targeted nine government boards whose mandates impact citizens' lives most, such as the Rwanda Agricultural Board among others. "There is a need for concerted efforts and attention to GBEs and Boards to ensure the improvement of Public Financial Management aimed at improving service delivery to the citizens," he added.

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