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Prime Minister Pierre-Celestin Rwigema has survived a no-confidence motion in parliament over allegations that he misappropriated millions of dollars of World Bank loans earmarked for education projects when he was Minister for Education in 1994. Rwigema survived the motion, levelled against him by a parliamentary commission of enquiry chaired by MP Major Rose Kabuye, on a 34-27 vote on Wednesday evening, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported. Rwigema had argued that the funds were mismanaged during what was a chaotic period in Rwanda following the genocide earlier that year.
Ambassador Jeani-Pierre Bizimana, former Minister of State in the
Department of Education, was also cleared of mismanaging the World Bank education project, Radio Rwanda reported. However, parliament recommended that the government should take "appropriate measures" against junior officials found to be responsible, and to devise means of recovering millions of Rwandan francs lost in paying incompetent construction
companies who were supposed to rehabilitate schools throughout the country that had been destroyed in the war and genocide.
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