Committee on Anti Corruption (CAC) - Overview

Introduction

The Institution of Engineers Rwanda is a Professional Regulatory Body that was established by law no 26/2012 of 29th June 2012 that governs the profession of engineering in Rwanda and establishing the Institution of Engineers Rwanda (IER). In the context of its mandate, IER was established to achieve the following goals:

1. To guide and to regulate activities of all those practicing engineering profession in the Country to ensure that engineering services delivered conform to and are in compliance with established engineering standards of service delivery and best practices.
2. To raise awareness on engineering profession in the Country to ensure that its importance and value in the Country’s social economic development process is well understood and appreciated at all levels of society (community, education and training Institutions, workplaces and professional associations).
3. To enhance technical capacities and professional competencies of its members to enable them to become more competent and competitive in the National, Regional and International engineering job markets.

The Institution of Engineers Rwanda was officially admitted as a National member of WFEO early 2017 and since then, the Institution has actively participated in various WFEO events and meetings and has greatly contributed at increasing the visibility and relevance of WFEO particularly in Africa.

It’s in this regard that the Institution of Engineers Rwanda submitted its bid and a Strategic Plan Proposal to host the WFEO Policy Implementation Committee on Anti-Corruption for the next 4 years and has now been approved for implementation by the General Assembly effective from November 2019.

Alignment of the Strategic Plan with Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)

In the next four years, the Committee Strategic Plan will be aligned to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) no 16 and 17. Key priority interventions and implementable Activities will aim at “Promoting peaceful and inclusive Societies for sustainable Development, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and
Inclusive Institutions at all levels”. Priority interventions to achieve this alignment to SDG no 16 will target the following:

1. Promoting the rule of law at the National and International levels and ensuring equal justice for all.
2. Developing effective, accountable and transparent Institutions at all levels.
3. Ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision making at all levels
4. Broadening and strengthening the participation of developing Countries in the Institutions of Global Governance
5. Ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms in accordance with National Registration and International agreements
6. Promoting and enforcing non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development

Proposed work schedule

In the next four years the committee shall strive to sustain the achievements of the previous leadership and will conduct necessary consultations with all the stakeholders in order to make the required improvements. Priority interventions and planned activities will address transitional issues as well as long-term strategic transformation of the Committee all aimed at building peace, justice and strong Institutions for a sustainable, stable and safer future for the mankind.

Several anti-corruption initiatives at the international level in construction and engineering are in place and the implementing Agencies will be approached and consulted from time to time. Proposed Agencies to be consulted and not limited to include:

• ACET – Global Anti-Corruption Education & Training Project
• CIECI – Construction Industry Ethics & Compliance Initiative
• CoST – Construction Sector Transparency Initiative
• FIDIC – International Federation of Consulting Engineers
• GIACC – Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Centre
• UK Anti-Corruption Forum
• WEF PACI – World Economic Forum – Partnering against Corruption Initiative
• TI Rwanda – Transparency International Rwanda
• Ombudsman – Rwanda Office of the Ombudsman
• RGB – Rwanda Governance Board

Implementation Approach

The strategy is to have objectives implemented by the WFEO member Institutions using the dual approach of:

• Raising awareness on corruption by providing or promoting anti-corruption trainings; and
• Working with government, funders, project owners, construction and engineering companies, and other professional institutions and business associations to encourage the implementation of anti-corruption measures as an integral part of government, corporate governance and project management.

This strategy shall be pursued in a non-confrontational manner by the member institutions. No blame will be allocated or accusations transacted. The Institutions could adopt the following non-confrontational approach:

• It is now widely accepted that corruption is one of the greatest obstacles to national development, and is a major cause of poverty and death. There is an increasing desire by ethical people and organizations to take action to stop it.
• There is also growing acceptance that it is vital to raise awareness of corruption by effective training, and to implement anti-corruption management systems as an integral part of government, corporate and project management. Anti-corruption management should play a similar role to safety and quality management. Providing training and implementing these systems should now be regarded as international best practice. These systems exist, and have been shown to work in cases where they have been effectively implemented.
• Professional engineers should support and implement these measures, within their organizations and projects, as part of their professional duty and for the benefit of society.
• Member institutions, as representatives of professional engineers and/or engineering businesses in their territories, shall therefore play leading role in helping promote these actions.