Forty Police officers have completed a three-day training in fighting corruption and public fund embezzlement as Rwanda National Police (RNP) continues to equip police officers with knowledge and skills to strengthen efforts against graft.
The training organized by RNP in partnership with the Legal Aid Forum (LAF) that ended on December 30 at the National Police College (NPC) in Musanze District further aims at emphasizing respect of rights of suspects during investigations.
According to Commissioner of Police (CP) Felix Namuhoranye, the commandant of NPC, the session was accorded to district judicial officers, Investigators charged with economic and financial crimes as well as those attached to the corruption and public fund embezzlement unit.
“Rwanda National Police cannot provide best policing services to the community independently, so that’s why we partner with other stakeholders like LAF to improve the skills of officers in varied policing disciplines,” said CP Namuhoranye.
“The overall objective of this specific training was to increase knowledge of participants on Human Rights by instilling the culture of observance of fundamental human rights during investigation, arresting and detaining suspects, and improve their effectiveness and coordination during investigations,” he added.
Participants also exhausted techniques of interview and statement recording and share experience from other public institutions on corruption and public funds related issues.
Fighting corruption remains among RNP’s ten key priority areas and its internal ‘zero-stance’ to graft has seen at least 193 police officers dismissed in the last three years and a total of 341 civilians, majority drivers, arrested attempting to bribe police officers during the same period.
In its effort to realize its targets against corruption, the force also established and reinforced an Anti-Corruption Unit, adopted the e-policing policy to limit officers’ contact with money, established toll-free lines 997 and 3511, entered partnership with other charged institutions like the Office of Ombudsman and Transparency International Rwanda , among others.
“During the training, officers also discussed on how to overcome existing challenges in fighting graft; acquired economic and financial investigative knowledge and skills; good understanding of the Audit Reports for use as evidence, tendering process and fraud committed in awarding tenders,” the commandant said.
Facilitators were drawn from RNP, office of the Auditor General, Rwanda Public Procurement Authority (RPPA), National Public Prosecutor Authority (NPPA) and LAF.
RNP and LAF, last year, started training of Police officers on human rights. The first series of trainings held in April this year targeted officers in ‘Charge of Custody’ and Human Rights, followed by Criminal Investigators’ across the country.
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