Rwandan President Paul Kagame has directed senior government officials to focus on solving problems facing the population instructing the Prime Minister to restrict “unnecessary” foreign travels for senior government officials, according to reports seen by APA Tuesday in Kigali.”Some tasks that necessitate government officials to travel abroad will now be done by the country’s high commissioners and ambassadors abroad,” said Kagame while adding that travel allowance is mostly paid to senior officials travelling abroad using money from taxpayer services.

According to the Rwandan leader, a few exceptions will only apply when there is an urgent undertaking abroad one [civil servant] could be allowed to travel after getting permission from competent authorities.

Going forward, public servants are tasked with accountability, “more than ever.”

The directive comes at a time when, according to Kagame, some public officials have a reputation of making frequent foreign trips at expense of taxpayers’ money, in a country that is investing in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, as it is elsewhere.

“The belt-tightening measures are aimed at enhancing accountability among public servants with immediate effect”