THE MISSION OF THE OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN

Article 7 of Law No 25/2003, as amended today, that establishes the Office of the Ombudsman, mandates the Office with the following missions :

  • Acting as a link between the citizen and public and private institution;
  • Preventing and fighting against injustice, corruption and other related offences in public and private administration;
  • Receiving and examining in the aforementioned context, complaints from individuals and independent associations against the acts of public officials or organs and private institutions and to mobilize these officials and institutions in order to find solutions to such complaints if they are well founded.

The Office shall not involve itself in the investigation or adjudiction relating to matters which are subjudice except that it may submit to the courts or the prosecution service the complaints which it has received, in which case those organs are required to respond to the office.

  • Receiving the faithful declaration of assets of the President of the Republic; the President of the Senate; the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies; the President of the Supreme Court; the Prime Minister and other members of Cabinet; Senators and Deputies; Generals and high ranking officers of the Rwanda Defence Forces; Commissioners and high ranking officers of the National Police; Leaders of the National Security Service; Prefects of Provinces and the Mayor of Kigali City; District and town or Municipality Mayors; Judges by profession, Prosecutors by profession and judicial police officers; those in charge of receiving, managing and controlling the public finance and property; those responsible for public tenders in central administration, commissions and specialized public institutions, local administration, public institutions and parastatals, public institutions with private management, institutions in which the government holds shares, state-owned projects and officials of those institutions; those in charge of taxes and revenues; other civil servants that are connected with public finance and property as well as those whose activities could lead to corruption and practices as the law may determine;
  • Advising Cabinet and other concerned institutions as regards strengthening and improving their policy of preventing, fighting and punishing corruption and other related offences;
  • Coordinating, at national level, programmes, strategies and actions of organs entrusted with preventing and fighting corruption and related offences;
  • Encouraging the Population to refrain from corruption or committing related offences in general and to train the staff in either public or private institutions;
  • Identifying and making public the list of persons definitively convicted for corruption and related offences nad sentences they received;
  • Contributing to strengthening good governance in different institutions by drawing their attention to their functioning and interaction-related weaknesses, for they are contrary to the law, their attributions or the State general policy or because the weaknesses have negative impact to the State general policy or because the weaknesses have negative impact to the population;
  • Sensitizing the population as to working together with public and private institutions to build the country and not fearing to denounce bad practices based on injustice, corruption and related offences;
  • Advising public and private institutions as to improving the quality of services delivered to the population;<
  • Submitting its plan of action and activity report to the President of Republic and Parliament every year, other state organs mentioned in article 23 of this law thereof given copie.