The need to score highly in performance contracts locally known as ‘Imihigo’, coupled with the desire to impress the top leadership could be behind the whirlwind of resignations and arrests of district mayors who are suspected of inflating figures to indicate growth and development in their districts.

This week, the former Mayor of Rusizi District Oscar Nzeyimana, his former deputy in charge of social affairs Basil Bayihiki and three other district officials were charged with forging documents with an aim of misleading government authorities.

Mr Nzeyimana and three of his subordinates appeared in court for bail hearing following their arrest last week.

Prosecutors contend that the four connived to forge documents on April 14, 2014 to reflect an increase in the uptake of the healthcare insurance scheme Mutuelle de Sante from 69 per cent to 77.5 per cent.

Some of the arrested officials confessed during interrogation that the numbers were deliberately inflated at the advice of mayor to project that the uptake of the medical scheme was impressive in the district.

Prosecutors further contend that Mr Nzeyimana deliberately presented the figures at the national level on May 2, 2014, well knowing that they were not reflecting the truth. His co-accused pinned the Mayor of being behind the plan to inflate the numbers.

“There was a team put in place to come up with the numbers and the mayor was aware of it,” one of the incarcerated officials said.

Prosecution also says that Mr Nzeyimana had pledged before the Head of State that Mutuelle de Sante targets will be accomplished by 100 per cent but a year later, the period he had promised to meet the targets had elapsed yet the district had not even registered an uptake of 70 per cent.

“It is at this point that Mr Nzeyimana and his team decided to inflate the numbers,” Prosecution said, adding that the officials should be held on demand as they await trial. Prosecutors say Mr Nzeyimana and company should be given a sentence of two years.

Two days after his resignation, the former mayor of Karongi, Bernard Kayumba, was arrested on similar charges—misusing or misappropriating Mutuelle de Sante funds.

Similarly, on Tuesday, the former Mayor of Nyamasheke district Jean-Baptiste Habyarimana was also arrested on suspicion of embezzlement of public funds meant for Mutuelle de Sante.

His arrest came five days after his resignation. There were initial reports that he had been intercepted trying to flee the country.

While Mr Habyarimana is accused of embezzling public funds, the other mayors who have resigned, including the mayors of Rwamagana, Gatsibo, Gasabo and Kirehe have not been arrested or charged.

READ: High turnover of Rwandan mayors puts local governance in the spotlight

Blowing the cover

According to reliable sources, under pressure to meet targets, it was discovered that most district leaders forged figures and documents in a bid to impress in the performance contracts, in what could be a major scandal in Rwanda’s local governance.

Having successfully covered up shortfalls in targets, sources privy to the matter intimated to Rwanda Today that district leaders had managed to blackmail evaluation teams from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Local Government which supervise the implementation of ‘Imihigo’ or performance contracts.

A source at the Ministry of Local Government which spoke to Rwanda Today on condition of anonymity said that it only came to the knowledge of the government that mayors could have possibly been inflating numbers to create a good impression.

It only came to light recently when the Ministry of Health requested districts to remit funds meant for Mutuelle de Sante into government accounts. However the districts failed to remit funds matching the uptake figures they claimed to have achieved.

According to the Governor of Western Province Caritas Mukandasira, the shortages in funds triggered an assessment audit which unearthed major shortfalls and inconsistences in Mutuelle de Sante funds, estimated to go above Rwf2bn.

The audit by the Province, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Local Government could be extended to other provinces, with Mayors now thought to be in panic mode.

The scam could also touch off a major assessment of other government programmes such as the One Cow Per Family, locally known as Girinka, genocide survivors programmes and other social welfare programmes whose figures could have been equally inflated to reflect a positive impression.

Efforts to reach the Minister of Local Government were futile as his phone went unanswered while the head of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) Prof Anastase Shyaka said that the matter of resignations is being handled by the Local Government Ministry.

Weighing in on the whirlwind of resignations, President Paul Kagame said on Thursday that it is not true that the resigning mayors do so for ‘personal reasons’ as indicated by most of the mayors and their deputies who resigned in the last few weeks.

Dismissing the ‘personal reasons’ claim, President Kagame said that it cannot be true but they instead resign because something is not right or because they failed to deliver what they promised.

Not personal reasons

“To say that people resigned because it was out of choice or for personal reasons is not true,” President Kagame said. “They resign because there are questions they failed to answer.

“Even today, those who resigned or their subordinates are being followed up by courts or criminal investigation department.

“We want to reach to the bottom of the matter. It is not just about people resigning or being put in prison, there is evidence to that which has been corrected or is being gathered,” President Kagame said.

He added that even as they investigate known cases, more mistakes done by local leaders are unearthed. He however said that the objective of the clean-up is in line with the principle of holding leaders accountable.

“If someone becomes a leader and sees it as an opportunity to fulfil his personal interests using public resources, they will be made answerable, unless if it is not found out, but if one is discovered, then they have to explain,” he said.

A source at the Ministry of Local Government said that initial investigations indicate that majority of the resigning leaders did not actually embezzle public funds but rather inflated numbers to impress in the Imihigo process, only to fail to match the numbers with the revenues.