Kigali — Rusizi Mayor, Fabien Sindayiheba, has confirmed said that his district is in a financial crisis because of a debt of over Rwf140 million.

"All these debts accumulated due to several managerial and financial problems that the district encountered two years ago," Sindayiheba said.

He said that the main cause of the financial mismatches is unexpected expenditure that was not budgeted for which the district undertook in the previous years like constructing houses and providing food for Rwandan returnees from Tanzania.

The Mayor added that entrepreneurs who were awarded tenders to supply materials but absconded also accounted for a portion of the financial mess.

Suppliers of materials to be used in TIG activities and office equipment received payments upon winning tenders but neither fulfilled their end of the contract nor reimbursed the money, according to the Mayor.

Other expenditures, he added, which had not been budgeted but incurred, were on rehabilitation and construction of new genocide memorial sites.

According to the Mayor, funds from the central government were also reduced from Rwf762 million to Rwf581million, causing further budgetary constraints.

However, Sindayiheba said he was optimistic that the debts would be cleared from the 2010 internal revenues of the district.

The former leaders of Rusizi district, including the former Mayor, Jean Pierre Turatsinze, District Executive Secretary, Boniface Bajanama and two Vice Mayors, were sacked early last year by the District Advisory Council for alleged mismanagement of funds.