The Office of the Ombudsman has faulted the Ministry of Justice over delays in execution of judgments, which is denying the government at least Rwf508 million in revenue.

At least Rwf454 million and $41,000 (Rwf28.3 million) is yet to be paid to the government after courts ruled in its favour but it has been dragging its feet to recover the money, says the new Ombudsman’s report.

According to officials from the corruption watchdog office, government was to recover around half a billion francs that it secured in court battles since 2006 but, so far, it has collected only Rwf26.8 million.

Officials from the Ombudsman’s Office say failure to collect compensations might affect business in public institutions.

According to Bernadette Kanzayire, the Deputy Ombudsman in charge of preventing and fighting injustice, Minijust will need to prioritise recovery mechanisms using all methods and resources available.

“We have all agreed that this problem should be given a priority,” said Ms Kanzayire. “Minijust should, in this case, decide to use both professional and non-professional court bailiffs to expedite the work.

“People who cannot pay in due course should incur extra costs, including paying bailiffs; government assets should not remain in people’s hands after they have lost legal battles.”

Rwanda Today has learnt that, as at last year, the government had lost only 79 litigations and won 275 court cases, outside of cases undergoing appeals.

Although this paper had sometimes back reported that close to Rwf4.5 billion in taxpayers’ money is paid annually to execute verdicts of lost cases, so far the exact amount of money supposed to be paid by the government on lost cases last year is unknown.

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Of late, the government has been sued mainly on issues related to breach of contract agreements, unlawful dismissal of employees and expropriation issues, which it seeks to mitigate by 90 per cent.

There have also been concerns that court bailiffs mandated to fast-track recoveries and expedite execution of judgments were few and some of them non-professional.

Ministry officials however said allegations of delays in execution of judgments were disputable considering the number of court cases.

“The Rwf480 million so far involves only 21 court cases and many of them come from the City of Kigali, which would not necessitate so many bailiffs,” said Theophile Mbonera, an official in the department of civil litigation at the ministry.

He added that public institutions involved in the cases should take the lead in helping the government to recover money or assets during execution of judgments.

Delays have also been reported against the government after it failed to pay compensations, with the latest case coming from Gatsibo District. After officials sought the intervention of senior leaders in the central government following land grabbing incidents in the district, the matter is yet to be cleared although courts have ruled in the interests of residents.

Mr Mbonera said the government, which was ordered to return the land, resisted the move, saying it is a wetland and it falls under its control.

“It took a bit of time because, in this case, the government was to evaluate the cost of the land and pay citizens instead of surrendering property it has control over,” Mr Mbonera said.

In any case, should the government delay in effecting payments, officials from the Office of the Ombudsman warned, it might incur fines amounting up to five per cent of the actual sum of money to be paid as damages.

The law relating to civil, commercial, labour and administrative procedure compels the loser to have effected payments within six months after the verdict.
However, according to Ms Kanzayire, some of public offices have resorted to unnecessary appeals, which delayed execution of judgments just because some could not pay all dues at a go.