An extensive audit is being conducted by Gatsibo District auditors to ascertain exact quantities of vegetables supplied to ten schools by AIRIF Group Ltd.
Gasana Richard, the district Mayor told Taarifa on Sunday that the supplier will soon be sorted after audit process is completed.
Karire Honette the Deputy Managing Director of AIRIF had last week expressed frustration with district authorities on how they are handling the matter.
“The matter is being properly handled by the district authorities, and we expect to be in position to respond to her accordingly within about a week,” Mayor Gasana said in an email.
Gasana was responding to an article earlier titled: How Gatsibo District Frustrated Schools’ Nutrition Project, published on this website.
“This lady engaged with some schools and entered into Agreements with them. She fulfilled some of the obligations under those agreements but did not fulfill others,” the Mayor said.
He added, “She[Karire] is now requesting payments for all the contracted activities including those that were not delivered which cannot be accepted without verification.”
“The district has put in place an audit team to reconcile the agreements, assess what was delivered and what was not, and determine what should and should not be paid,” Gasana said in an email.
According to Gasana the involvement of auditors will ensure fairness and establish facts of the matter.
However, Gasana said, “she [Karire] appears to want the matter rushed which would not be appropriate before the verification process is completed.
Karire told Taarifa Investigative Desk that she’s been chasing for payment for two years.
The project workers need to be paid, yet the schools continue to harvest vegetables.
“Arrears have accumulated to about Rwf14million,” Karire told our Investigative team.
While the district authorities say they are handling the matter through an audit process, Karire and her team have been blocked from entering the ten schools in which they operate vegetable gardens.
In some schools, Karire said the gardens have collapsed because nobody is tending to them.
In other schools where vegetable gardens still operate, Karire said that they are harvesting vegetables without their presence and that is not reflected in delivery records.
