VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB
DE RUEHLGB #0209/01 0601505
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011505Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3833
INFO RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 0020
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM 0829
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 1546
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0188
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 0791
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0209
UNCLAS KIGALI 000209
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM RW
SUBJECT: OFFICE OF AUDITOR GENERAL ON USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS
Summary
--------
1. (U) The Auditor General sees recurring failings in use of
public funds by some government offices, to be rectified by
training, appointment of appropriate oversight officials, the
production of consolidated financial statements by the
Ministry of Finance, and a new Accountancy law. Assistance
is most acutely needed by local officials, as the GOR
proceeds with its extensive decentralization program. The EU
has a two-pronged program to assist the GOR: technical
assistance to the Ministry of Finance and assistance with
certification of public accountants. End summary.
Serious Failings Noted
----------------------
2. (U) The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) in its
recently submitted Report to Parliament (for calendar year
2005) records a number of failings in the executive branch in
its use of public funds, including:
--Non-preparation of financial statements; some institutions
do not maintain proper books of account.
--Poor management of bank accounts; reconciliation statements
are not produced.
--Poor management of fixed assets; some offices have no fixed
asset registers, and thus have "no effective control over
fixed assets."
--Absence of title deeds; most government institutions do not
have title deeds; ownership disputes are likely, says the OAG.
--Non-compliance with tender procedures. While the law
stipulates three levels of tender board depending on the
level of proposed tender, approximately eighteen million
dollars of projects were awarded without tender board
approval. Some tenders were split into smaller tenders to
avoid the tender boards.
Unsupported expenditure; approximately $7.2 million of
expenditures occurred "that were not supported by any
verifiable document."
--Ineffectiveness of internal audits; "most of the audited
entities do not have internal audit functions, and where
internal auditors are in place, their work is neither
effective nor reliable."
--Ineffectiveness of Directors of Finance and Administration
in most institutions; "in most cases, qualifications and
experience of people holding these positions are not relevant
to the position."
3. (U) The OAG audited 17 of 32 ministries "and other
central administrative units," a number of other national and
local governmental bodies, and 24 of 50 "autonomous and
semi-autonomous public enterprises." However, only the
executive summary of the parliamentary report is available to
the public (and this mission), at an OAG website. The
individual failings of specific government bodies, and the
extent of those failings, is not discussed in that summary.
Improvements
-----------
4. (U) The executive summary notes that production of
"consolidated financial statements," something not previously
done by the Ministry of Finance, is scheduled to begin for
the 2006 financial year. Training of accountants and
internal auditors has commenced, and the "expected enactment"
of an Accountancy Law will improve financial management.
Help from donors includes assistance from the European Union,
which is assisting the Ministry of Finance with
implementation of the new Organic Budget Law as well as
preparation of a new public accounts software system,
nicknamed "Public Books." The EU is also assisting, together
with the World Bank, DFID and SIDA, with training and
certification of public accountants. The Swedish and Dutch
embassies are assisting the Auditor General with training in
"performance" audits and in their general auditing of
government funds.
Recommendations
---------------
5. (SBU) In the audit summary, the Auditor General, taking
note of the "serious shortcomings" in the financial
management of the institutions audited, recommends training
of "non-finance managers" as well as board members of public
corporations in oversight duties. In recent conversations
with mission officers, the Deputy Auditor General (DAG) said
that "most errors" in the use of public funds involved a lack
of transparency -- what was done was either "not clear or
unproven."
6. (SBU) The DAG noted that that the Office of the Auditor
General had no enforcement function of its own. Instead, its
sent its yearly reports to both the Parliament and the
Prosecutor General, as well as the Presidency and individual
members of the cabinet. However, none had the expertise to
evaluate the reports properly. Prosecutors in particular
lacked expertise and experience in pursuit of financial
crimes.
7. (SBU) Of particularly concern, said the DAG, was the low
level of financial capacity at the district and sector levels
(NGO personnel working at these levels echo this sentiments).
The problem was "immense," he said. His office had begun to
visit all 30 district offices, and his 70 auditors (the best
in the country, he averred) had begun grappling with the
task. Recently returned from Uganda, where he held a similar
position in the Ugandan government (engaged in a similarly
broad decentralization effort, he said), the DAG said he
expected "progress, but not overnight."
Comment
-------
8. (SBU) The recently released report of the Auditor General
received some press play here, devoid of any substantive
details, beyond some attention to the general points noted
above. Reports of this kind are unfortunately regarded as
sensitive documents, to be discussed by government officials
in closed sessions, and unavailable to the public. However,
in the dry detail of practicing accountants, recurrent
failings in the documentation of the use of public funds are
noted with some precision in the publicly-released executive
summary. As noted by the Deputy Auditor General, and by
international NGOs working in Rwanda, while all levels of
government need substantial training in accounting for public
funds, local government officials are particularly in need of
capacity building assistance. The European Union, Dutch and
Swedish missions are assisting both the Ministry of Finance
and the Office of the Auditor General with public accounting
and the accounting profession. End comment.
ARIETTI