NEWS PROVIDED BY

UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Dec 09, 2020, 09:29 PST

LONDON, 09 December 2020 / PRN Africa / --

UK partnership with Rwanda has enabled significant progress in tackling corruption, including through 19 million pounds support to public sector reforms.

Over the last decade the UK has helped Rwanda to make significant progress in tackling corruption. This has included building effective institutions for accountability and strengthening financial controls. Since 2010, the UK has contributed 19 million pounds to public sector reforms in Rwanda. Support from the UK and other development partners has enabled Rwanda to achieve the following results:

The UK provided 8.8 million pounds to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning through two consecutive programmes from 2010 to 2017 which has: expanded reach and capability of the financial management information system, strengthened public procurement and developed the internal audit function. The quality of public financial management has steadily improved as suggested by successive international assessments.

The UK has been the leading development partner of the Office of the Auditor General since 2011, which has expanded coverage of expenditure, audit quality and ability to audit complex areas. The level of audit coverage of government's expenditure has increased from 75% in 2012-13 to 86.6% last year. The UK provided 6 million pounds over ten years to finance the implementation of successive strategic plans.

The UK was a leading donor to the Public Policy Information Monitoring and Advocacy programme, where state and non-state actors promoted citizen participation in the fight against corruption in public service delivery. This included the production of the Rwandan Bribery Index and other projects such as Access to Justice Information Centres and Access to Legal Aid Centres.

The UK is proud to have been a partner in the huge progress Rwanda has made to date and remains committed to working together in the future. Our cooperation increasingly includes peer-to-peer partnerships between Rwandan and British institutions such as the UK Office of National Statistics with the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, HM Revenue and Customs with the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), as well as financial aid. This reflects the depth of the UK-Rwanda relationship in public sector governance and anti-corruption. The UK will continue to work with MINECOFIN and MINALOC to focus on improving anti-corruption and financial management at the local level delivering: stronger management and accounting of financial resources in districts, more effective budgeting and spending of public money and, ultimately, better public services for citizens.

SOURCE UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office