WAYS TO BALANCE THE EQUATION

Why donors fear Kagame's war on graft

The Botswana Gazette

13.04.2005

http://www.gazette.bw/tbg_buhead2.htm by Andrew M.



Last week I was in Kigali , this time at the heels of a cabinet decision to impound all luxurious four wheel drive vehicles bought at government expense and driven by ministers, security and military chiefs, foreign experts and their local handlers. In a morning crackdown, all the big men and women of this republic woke up to find that police constables along the main roads were stopping and taking away their vehicles and leaving them to walk to office.

The international donor community, known all over Africa for its corrupt

and profligate life styles which they indulge in the name of fighting

poverty, was this time caught with their pants down. They claim to fight

poverty while riding in luxurious four-wheel drive vehicles, sitting in

opulently furnished offices, earning obscene salaries and living in

executive mansions. In a bold act of defiance, Rwanda impounded even those

vehicles belonging to donor projects. After cleaning his own government of

corruption, he has now taken on the profligacy of the international aid

industry and its experts are now scared.



In a discussion with President Paul Kagame, he told me that he had looked

at some of the "poverty reduction" projects and they smelt bad. "There are

projects here worth only $5m and when I looked at their expenses, I found

that $1m was going into buying these cars, each one of them at $70,000.

Another $1m goes to buy office furniture, more $1m for meetings and

entertainment, and yet another $1m as salaries for technical experts,

leaving only $1m for the actual expenditure on a poverty reducing activity.

Is this the way to fight poverty?" he asked as I shifted with glee in my

chair.



Already, the government is auctioning these vehicles and so far has gotten

over $3m from the sales. Mr Kagame has now issued a new directive, saying

government should not purchase cars for its officials with more than 2,500

cc. But there is more: the government has placed a ceiling on mobile

telephone expenses for all its ministers, military and security chiefs to

50,000 Rwanda Francs (Shs150, 000), and also ordered MTN Rwanda to cut off

their international roaming access.



The directive also stops the holding of workshops, seminars and conferences

on poverty reduction in posh hotels like the Intercontinental, Mille

Collins etc, insisting they should be in government owned buildings at no

cost. The order also requires all government ministries; departments and

agencies to move from privately owned buildings where they pay high rents

to government owned buildings.



I told Kagame that whereas some of the most highly skilled Africans are

going to Europe and North America to clean streets and toilets, our

development partners send us Œtechnical experts on these projects at

individual monthly salaries of between $10,000 and $20,000, a salary that

could pay 12 Africans of better training and experience and save this

continent from severe brain drain. In fact, most of these so-called experts

are a miserable, career-stranded lot in their own countries, but are dumped

in Africa and other poor countries through foreign aid protocols.



Donors never shy from lecturing our governments on fiscal frugality, yet

their aid driven projects are the most profligate. Of total project aid to

Uganda 's ministry of Health, 93 percent of it goes into technical

assistance (i.e. salaries and allowances for the experts) and overheads

(i.e. four wheel drive vehicles, opulent office furniture, computers,

stationary, tea and cakes).



Only a miserable 7 percent of this aid goes into purchase of drugs. Now you

understand why, in spite of a huge health budget, our people cannot find

drugs in hospitals. We in the media have been shouting ourselves hoarse

against government corruption. It is time to expose the worse forms of

profligacy, which forces our governments to pile up huge sums in debt.



In fact, of the total money from the Uganda government budget to the

ministry of Health, 98 percent reaches its intended beneficiaries, clearly

showing that in spite of its corrupt ways, the government of Uganda is a

better evil than donors. Of total project aid to Uganda , 68 percent goes

into overheads and technical assistance. Only 32 percent to its intended

beneficiaries.



A few weeks ago I presented the above facts to President Yoweri Museveni

and asked him to act. My heart bleeds to say he is so deeply discredited by

his inability to tackle corruption in his government, and his own

profligate public administration expenditure that he lacks moral authority

to take on donors.



The other reason is that his regime lives off this coalition of mutual

deceit with donors that both are fighting to eradicate poverty in Uganda .

Kagame, however, is able to act boldly because he occupies a moral high

ground in fighting corruption, has ensured fiscal frugality and also

because his government pursues strategies of survival - not necessarily

dependant on donor approval.



In Rwanda , ministers and other high ranking public officials resign and or

are fired by the week because of allegations of corruption. From the lowest

clerk in a government office to the most powerful minister or military or

security chief, no one is immune to jail when they steal; none close to the

president, none distant from him. You steal, you get jailed.



If there is some prima facie case that you stole, but there isn't not

enough evidence to convict you in a court of law, then you are asked to

resign or get fired. What a tough guy this Kagame man is!!

Love, Peace and Harmony!!!! "I want to believe that I am gold and diamond. In order to be refined I have to go through this period of fire. Tomorrow, I want to believe, Mzwakhe will become the source of inspiration to those who have despaired, those who were discouraged, those who are in extreme physical problems and pangs" - Mzwakhe Mbuli 'People's Poet', 2005