Rwanda's responses to money laundering

1.6 The Overall Crime Situation in Rwanda

Generally, Rwanda has a low to moderate incidence of crime,²⁸ but this does not discount the fact that the occurrence of the following serious crimes worries the law enforcement authorities:

a. Human Trafficking: Many people are trafficked either from or through Rwanda annually to Asian and European countries.²⁹ Among the victims are girls under the age of 18 who are trafficked for purposes of labour and sexual exploitation.³⁰

b. Corruption: Rwanda is one of the least corrupt countries in the region and on the African continent as a whole.³¹ This progress against corruption has been made possible through a firm political will to fight corruption through the enactment of deterrent policies and laws.³² The government has acted against corruption, for it is regarded as a major barrier to the economic and social development of the nation.³³ The government has introduced codes of conduct and has imposed accountability measures for politically

28 See the Rwanda 2013 Crime and Safety Report, available at

https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=14038 (accessed on 16 September 2014).

29 United States Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report -Rwanda (2013), available at:
http://www.refworld.org/docid/51c2f39359.html (accessed on 18 March 2014).

30 See the United States Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report -Rwanda (2013), available at:
http://www.refworld.org/docid/51c2f39359.html (accessed on 18 March2014).

31 Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer (2013), available at

http://www.transparencia.org.es/BAROMETRO_GLOBAL/Bar%C3%B3metro_Global_2013/Global_Corrupt ion_Barometer_2013.pdf accessed on 24 February 2014) and the East African Bribery Index (EABI) 2012, available at http://tikenya.org/index.php/more-links/publications/corruption-surveys/east-africa-bribery-index (accessed on 28 February 2014).

32 See the Rwanda National Anti-Corruption Policy, available at

http://www.ombudsman.gov.rw/Documents/pdf/POLICY%20final%20after%20cabinet.pdf (accessed on 27 February 2014).

33 Rwanda Governance Board Rwanda's Anti-Graft Drive: Assessing global indexes' Findings on Transparency
and corruption (2013), available at:

http://www.rgb.rw/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Corruption_analysis.pdf (accessed on 24 February 2014).

11

exposed persons (PEPs). As a result, a significant number of PEPs and civil servants have been prosecuted and others were requested to resign from their positions, following allegations of corruption.³⁴

c. Cybercrimes: Cases of robbery of automatic teller machines (ATMs) and system hacking were recorded in 2013 due to the fragility of the e-banking system. The weaknesses so far identified include the lack of a specific anti-cybercrime law, uneven legal standards regulating information and community technology and a weak criminal justice system when it comes to prosecuting cybercrime, especially because of the difficulty of adducing evidence with regard to this brand of crime.³⁵

d. Terrorism: Grenade attacks have taken place since 2009 and have targeted busy markets and transit hubs in towns. These acts have been imputed to the Force Démocratique pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan rebel group operating in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.³⁶

e. Embezzlement of Public Funds: In the last seven years, 765 senior government officials have been fired and have faced prosecution for alleged acts of embezzlement, and

34 Boris B `Rwanda gets tough on corruption' The Telegraph 07 December 2009 6, available at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/6752425/Rwanda-gets-tough-on-corruption.html (accessed on 27 March 2014).

35 Patrick M and Maureen O Workshop Report on Effective Cybercrime Legislation in Eastern Africa (2013),

available at

http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/economiccrime/Source/Cybercrime/Octopus2013/2571_EastAfri ca_WS_Report.pdf (accessed on 16 June 2014).

36 See the US Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism 2012 (2013), available at
http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2012/209979.html (accessed on 16 June 2014).

12

abuse of power.³⁷ The Office of the Prosecutor is yet to sue 281 more squanderers of public resources over different embezzlement cases involving 833 million Rwandan francs (Rwf).³⁸

f. Mismanagement of Public Funds: Mismanagement of public funds has taken place mostly in the public works and energy sectors. The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has summoned the supervising public authorities repeatedly to explain the reasons behind the poor management. The root cause remains the lack of concrete governmental strategies and measures to fight graft and to arrest, try and punish the culprits.