Several officials from Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS) are being investigated over suspected flouting of tendering rules when they contracted Rwanda Agribusiness Limited (RABI) to supply food for inmates last year.

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RCS, which comprises the National Prisons Service and Travaux pour d’Interets Generale (TIG), the agency that supervises community work carried out by convicts of the 1994 genocide, are being investigated over allegations that their officials engaged in unfair practices when they awarded the tender.

The tender in question is said to be valued at Rwf400 million.

Article 28 of the Law on Public Procurement states: “If the estimated value of the goods, works or services being procured is above the threshold established by the procurement regulations, the procuring entity shall advertise the invitation to tender in at least one newspaper of nationwide circulation and, if the procuring entity has a website, on its website.”

The procedure, according to the accusations levelled against RCS, was not followed as it only invited one firm when the tender required competitive bidding.

When contacted, RCS Commissioner-General Paul Rwarakabije confirmed the institution was being investigated, saying the exercise was about to be concluded.

Mr Rwarakabije told Rwanda Today that several officials at RCS have already been interrogated, adding that a prosecution team was also following the matter.

Insider alerted national tender body

Sources said investigations into the matter commenced after an insider at RCS alerted the Rwanda Public Procurement Agency, the national tender body, to the oversight.

Rwanda Today has since learnt that all members of the RCS internal tender committee were recently summoned to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters at Kacyiru, Kigali.

The investigators sought to determine whether the committee members had circumvented the tendering process.

The RABI director of administration and finance, Richard Mutabayire, however said the company officials were not interrogated over the case.

”We just hear people at RCS were questioned over our tender,” Mr Mutabayire told Rwanda Today.

RABI was contracted in July last year to supply cooked food to inmates who were serving jail terms at Huye and Nyamagabe prisons.
The two prisons house about 10,000 inmates.

Mr Rwarakabije however said he was positive that the officials being investigated would be cleared since he believed there was no bribery involved.

“While the tender was awarded without following normal procedure, nobody was bribed by the supplier,” he said during the interview at his office. “There was suspicion that money could have changed hands, which is not true.”

Sources at Rwanda National Police say even senior officials at RCS were interrogated regarding their role in the issue. Asked whether he, too, was interrogated, Mr Rwarakabije said he was only summoned to explain “a few things”.

“The issue is about RCS, and if there is something wrong they will have to ask leaders in charge to explain and set the record straight,” said Mr Rwarakabije.

He added that RCS had paid about Rwf400 million since the supplier had already fed the inmates before the Ministry of Finance halted further payments to pave the way for investigations.

Deputy RCS Commissioner-General Mary Gahonzire said it was premature to blame the officials while investigations were ongoing. “Let us wait and see,” she said.

The government spends about Rwf4 billion annually to feed prisoners.

Top RCS officials say the government appreciates their idea of feeding inmates on outsourced food because it is cheaper and that the decision to engage RABI was aimed at cutting costs incurred in preparing food for the prisoners within the facilities.

The company had been contracted to feed prisoners in Huye and Nyamagabe on a pilot basis and RCS intended to expend the programme to other prisons countrywide.

Launching the pilot programme last year, Internal Security Minister Sheikh Mussa Fazil Harerimana told journalists the programme would help the government to save an estimated Rwf2 billion annually and still feed the inmates well.

RABI single-sourced for tender

A source at RCS said RABI was single-sourced for the tender because it is the sole producer of processed food in the country and that, even if the tender were to be open, nobody else would be interested in supplying cooked food.

Tenders in some government departments have raised questions, with persistent claims in the Auditor-General’s reports that the process is marred by lack of transparency and fair competition.

In some instances, a tender committee advertises tenders but then discloses the allocated budget to friendly bidders, which the contractors quote to win the tenders in exchange for kickbacks.

Several government officials have ended up in prison for flouting tendering rules, especially at the district level.