By JOHNSON KANAMUGIRE

More by this Author

The Imihigo ranking has again exposed deficiency in accountability on delivery as local government entities dogged by internal wrangles, leaders’ turnover performed dismally in ranking this year.

It has emerged that eight out of the ten districts that performed poorly in the ranking were those embroiled in a spate of sackings and resignations of officials linked largely to internal wrangles and graft.

Service delivery borne an even heavier brunt due to the Covid-19 linked containment measures that weighed down livelihoods especially in districts whose population livelihoods heavily relied on the cross border trade.

Five Districts – Rusizi, Karongi, Nyabihu, Ngororero and Rutsiro -- of the ten least performing Districts are from the Western Province, followed by three from the Northern Province namely Musanze, Gakenke and Rulindo. Others are Muhanga and Nyarugenge.

Except for Rulindo and Gakenke, leadership has been unstable in these districts amid widespread graft allegations.

However, the National Institute of Statistics (NISR), which carries out the evaluation generally blamed their poor performance on failure to implement the projects outlined in their respective Imihigo programmes.

“They just did not implement the projects this time. Rusizi may be Covid-19 longer problem there but it still boils down to implementation,” Yusuf Murangwa, NISR director general told Rwanda Today.

Details of projects in question were not made public, but a look at individual districts’ performance contracts show most had prioritized interventions in the area of human security such as construction of accommodation and sanitation facilities for eligible vulnerable families.

This is in addition to rehabilitation of those in poor conditions, as well as getting scores of families out of high risk zones and scattered settlements.

A number of districts also planned to deploy resources and efforts towards expansion of water supply systems and revamping idle projects.

Analysts indicate the incoming grassroots leaders elections at the end of the current term early next year presents a perfect opportunity to make changes that can fast-track projects implementation of districts lagging behind.

“When you look at the disparity in score between the first and the last three districts, the only possibility of helping the situation is making sure next elections bring a breed of leaders determined to root out internal governance problems hampering delivery in these entities,” said Joseph Hakuzwumuremyi, a journalist.

“It also calls for better co-ordination of districts with other government organs to allow quick  interventions to mitigate cumulative effects of projects that stall as a result of these issues. Otherwise the impact on development is irreversible.”

Bernard Yves Ningabire, local government planning director at the Ministry of Local Government told Rwanda Today they were yet to look at the specific details of the evaluation to narrow down on specific issues that may have weighed down performance in Districts.