Office of the ombudsman and public financial management in local government of Rwanda

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Date
2011-11
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Abstract
The study attempted to examine the role of the Office of Ombudsman in Public Financial Management in Local Government of Rwanda. The objectives of the study were to study various levels of management of public resources, investigate the extent to which the Office can be effective control of public resources management and examine the challenges of Office of Ombudsman in controlling/monitoring public financial resources. A descriptive survey, qualitative research designs and documentary analysis were used to collect required information from 54 staff of Office of Ombudsman, 38 sector council members, 27 sector staff members and 27 school staff members. Descriptive analysis and simple percentage were used to analyze data firstly, the results showed that the Office of Ombudsman has played a significant role in Public Financial Management in local government of Rwanda. Secondly, it was however found out that many challenges need to be overcome. Challenges include heavy duties compared to resources, scarcity of resources, low participation of the public, false information in declaration of assets, inability to verify all declaration of assets; failure by some officials to declare assets, the Office has limited power, among others. To optimize the effectiveness in Public Financial Management, the researcher recommended that the Office should be strengthened through expanding the number of its personnel and increasing the budget allocated to the Office; the population should actively support the Ombudsman activities through reporting cases of misuse and embezzlement the Office of Ombudsman should put into place mechanisms for verification of as many declarations as possible; the Office should be empowered with the abilities and competencies to make decisions concerning cases of misuse and embezzlement of public assets; the campaign of sensitizing the population about the mandate of the Office must be reinforced.
Description
A Thesis Presented to the School of Postgraduate Studies and Research Kampala International University Kampala, Uganda in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Management
Keywords
Public financial management, Local government, Rwanda
Citation