Rwanda Cuts Government Bureaucracy To Make It More Efficient, Reports KT Press

KIGALI, Rwanda, Aug. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Government of Rwanda has introduced new reforms aimed at restructuring public service institutions to increase efficiency and better services to citizens.

The Minister of Public Labor and service Judith Uwizeye says that a Public Institutions Performance Analysis and Performance Audit of Institutional Mergers carried out between June 2013 and February 2014 showed loopholes that hinder delivery of services.

"The findings revealed gross shortcomings and gaps in the current public institutions' organization, thus the need for an overhaul," said the Minister on July 30, 2014. 

The review was done by the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE), an arm of the Singaporean government.

The team cited poor coordination among departments that are inter-linked, duplication of responsibilities – where two or more people perform similar duties, and bureaucracy. As a result some tenders were experiencing unnecessary delays because of a chain of signatories and verifiers.

Minister Uwizeye said the changes are aimed at improving government efficiency, accountability and keeping the growing wage bill in check.

"The objective of the restructuring is to keep building a capable developmental state and achieve effective service delivery by public agencies through professional performance and high productivity," she said. 

The reforms include suppressing unnecessary posts, creation of news posts where needed and merging institutions that were redundant.

The Minister of Public Labor and service reassured public servants that all would be done to keep all qualified staff. "If you are qualified and possess all required expertise - if you do your job properly, you shouldn't worry," she said, adding, "There are chances for whose posts will be suppressed to be transferred to other departments that need new staff."

In addition to efficiency and effectiveness, the new reforms will boost accountability and quality assurance to ensure internal checks and controls as well as complementarity. The changes will also allow for coordination and decentralization of roles and responsibility.

The restructuring process covered different state operational levels including central government to local government. More reforms in the sector of education, health, security will be done before the end of August 2014.

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By Fred Mwasa
KT Press
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SOURCE KT Press