Today, this Thursday On March 5, 2020, The Honorable Ombudsman of Rwanda, Anastase Murekezi, Deputy Ombudsman in charge of Preventing and Fighting against Corruption Mr. MUSANGABATWARE Clément, and other Officials from the Office of The Ombudsman Rwanda, received in a courtesy call, His Excellency Dr. Ron Adam, Ambassador of Ambassador of the State of Israel to Rwanda.
The purpose of this courtesy call was to introduce himself to the Office and learned more about Ombudsman’s Office.
Honorable Ombudsman of Rwanda, Anastase Murekezi shared with His Excellency Ambassador, experience of measures that Rwanda has undertaken to prevent and fight against corruption as well as injustice.
He said “The Government of Rwanda has undertaken a number of Anti-corruption and injustice measures and this was coupled with immense political will, zero tolerance to corruption and public support. Different laws were adopted and different institutions established.”
The Office of the Ombudsman was established in 2004 by the Constitution.
The Office of Ombudsman was also delightedly to share with the Ambassador the mission of the Office as presented by the Permanent Secretary of the Office, Mr. MBARUBUKEYE Xavier.
He said “The Office of the Ombudsman ’missions are provided in article 4 of the law no 76/2013 of 11/09/2013 determining the mission, powers, organization and functioning of the Office of the Ombudsman and its guiding principles in article 5.”
The Office of the Ombudsman is a hybrid institution which deals at the same time with addressing injustice complaints; preventing and combating corruption; monitoring good governance and promoting integrity and transparency.
His Excellency Ron Adam, Ambassador of the State of Israel to Rwanda appreciated the effort of Rwanda for the adequate measures that undertaken to fight corruption and injustice and he commended the exclusive powers of the Office of Court judgement review as uniqueness of Rwanda. The Ambassador was interested on how the Office of The Ombudsman deals with the complaints from citizens.
His Excellency Ambassador shared with Ombudsman that Israel has no Constitution, only they have 12 basic laws and ordinary laws. The Israel has started the institution “The Controller and Ombudsman Office” which has the mandate to fight against corruption.
He was Very happy for what he learned from Rwanda’s experience especially in assets declaration and investigates and prosecutes cases of corruption differently from His institution. And he said in our Visitors book “Many thanks a lot of ground for cooperation. I learned so much!”
In conclusion, His Excellency Ambassador and Ombudsman agreed to start the negotiation of MoU between the Office of The Ombudsman of Rwanda and The Controller and Ombudsman Office of Israel in Preventing and Fighting against Corruption and Injustice.