The Office of Ombudsman’s report for 2016-2017 has revealed that during the declaration of political parties’ wealth, four failed to detail the source of funding and supporting documents of their expenditures.
Organic Law N° 10/2013/0L of 11/07/2013 Governing Political Organizations and Politicians states that The Office of Ombudsman shall each year and whenever necessary verify the accounts of political organizations, on its initiative or upon request by the authority in charge of registration of political organizations.
The Ombudsman received financial records for eleven political parties which are RPF Inkotanyi, PDC, PDI, PL, PPC, PSD, PS Imberakuri, PSP, PSR, UDPR and DGPR, assessed their sources of funding as well as their expenditures.
The Ombudsman said that four political parties; PSR, PDI, PPC and PS Imberakuri had inaccurate information characterized by poor records
According to the report, PS Imberakuri financial declarations did not follow fiscal year calendar as their report covers 1st October 2015 to 30th September, 2016.
In PSR, the party did not account for Rwf360,000as PPC accounts show that the paid an extra Rwf480,000 in rent without explanations. and PDI do not follow financial reporting guidelines. Speaking to IGIHE, the chairperson for PS Imberakuri, Christine Mukabunani said that they were so far confused with laws.
“At first we had to report to the Office of the Ombudsman and submit a copy to the Rwanda Governance Board, but following the revision of the law in 2013, newchanges confused us” she explained.
She explains that they used to report in October and include activities performed in August and September.
“Now, they explained to us that we should declare activities performed between July and June. Errors are now corrected,” she added.
Public servants failed to declare wealth sources
Ombudsman’s report also revealed that six public servants failed to declare their source of wealth and some of them h had their cases taken to prosecution.
Presenting the report to both chambers of parliament yesterday, the Ombudsman, AnastaseMurekezi said that among 1,088 individuals that had to declare their wealth in 2016/2017, six did not.
The Office of Ombudsman requested that the government should seize ¼ of salary for people who fail to declare their sources of wealth.src :Igihe
The Express News
