APA – Kigali (Rwanda) – The former Director General of Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA), Prof Jean Bosco Harelimana has been arrested over claims of financial misconduct, Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) confirmed Friday.
Prof. Harelimana who was sacked in January this year was summoned earlier this week by Rwanda’s parliament Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing on condition that failed to report, an action which could take him to court.
Harelimana was supposed to be on the team of current and former RCA officials to respond to queries in the Auditor General report of fiscal year 2021/2022 but some minutes after the session was scheduled to start, he was nowhere to be seen.
PAC members showed mistrust in the financial books of the cooperative agency saying that there are high chances of embezzlement that may have been conducted by officials.
The review of monitoring and evaluation report on implementation status of RCA audit recommendations on 46 cooperatives sampled among audit carried out between 2016 and 2021, revealed embezzlement amounting to Rwf871,522,147 (about $ 871 million USD) occurred in 34 cooperatives in Rwanda.
RCA audit recommended to recover the amount.
However, only Rwf17,894,180 (about $ 17 million USD ) equivalent to 2% of total embezzlement was recovered by cooperatives, it said.
CU/as/APA