| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Like a roadmap, it provides the direction for the project, the project manager needed to set the course for the initiative. The project plan that would contain all the planning documents for the initiative. It is essential for them to understand the importance of this set of documents with its content, since they would be asked to review and approve the documents that pertain to them.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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Different stakeholders were involved in implementation of the ODAS initiative and we can specify main actors starting from the Ombudsman team by then: Dr. Tito Rutaremara Chief Ombudsman, Mrs Mukarurangwa Immaculée Deputy Ombudsman in charge of preventing and fighting corruption, Mr. Nzindukiyimana Augustin Deputy Ombudsman in charge of preventing and fighting corruption and related offenses , Mr. Mbarubukeye Xavier Permanent Secretary, Mrs Mwiseneza Jeanne d'Arc Director of declaration of Assets Unit, Mrs. Kalinijabo Yvonne Director of finance and administration, Mr.Rutayisire Célestin Database and Applications Administrator, all the staff in the unit declaration of assets, support team from Rwanda Development Board Information Technology(RDB-IT) for technical advice, consultancy company from private sector, Ministry of Youth and ICT
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The resources used for the implementation of the ODAS project were fully mobilized and funded by the Office of the Ombudsman. These resources include but not limited to hardware server, software server operating systems, other server side application software like MYSQL server,PHP, Apache, Laptops, desktops, switches,router,communication equipments like telephones, internet modems, internet subscription, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) licenses, cpanel Licensing, transportation and mission allowances for trainers going to each district , communication allowances and training modules. All these resources were fully funded by the Office of the Ombudsman.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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ODAS is a result of transition from a paper-based to an electronic system which increased the effectiveness of asset declaration and management as summarized below:
ODAS is easy, user-friendly and efficient as it facilitates a safe and cheap filing, as well as archive of assets declared because storing declarations in the form of soft copies takes a smaller space to a big ration compared to storing hard copies of books;
Faster and error free reporting;
Makes data retrieving for checking purposes quicker and easier;
Improved monitoring of declarers as you can monitor the progress of declaration process;
Saving time and money for declarers transport as well as for the Office of the Ombudsman in printing, transport, logistics, etc.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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During the Online Declaration of Assets System (ODAS) implementation , the progress was monitored based on the benchmarks set in the terms of reference step by step always by verifying and whether the work done by a stakeholder responds to the needs expressed in the plan and terms of reference and validated. In case a module is not responding to the reference they rectify and restart.
Presenting the milestone to other institutions, declaring community and others for testing and feedback was a good system of evaluating the activities and how progressive is the project implementation and importantly to know if the initiative would meet the needs of the citizens.
In case suggestions from feedback indicated missing functionalities these were added immediately or modifications were made and so on and so forth.
Successful development of the Online Declaration of Assets System (ODAS) incorporated monitoring modules that enable the Office of the ombudsman to monitor declaration activity progress whereby, if a declarer reacts to an invitation for declaration a staff can see that change of the status, number of pending declarers, up to submission step and this is possible anytime, from anywhere in the world so long as you have internet access from his/her IPAD, phone, laptop, etc. A discussion forum available from the website enables continuous monitoring and receiving feedbacks from different people.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The main obstacles that were encounter during the implementation of ODAS are as follows:
• Limited Internet connection and electricity in rural areas; in some areas during the trainers found out that there internet connectivity issues, electricity power is not stable in some areas of the country and this results into internet connectivity downtime. To overcome these challenges, the Office of the ombudsman requested concerned companies and institutions to sort out these problems.
• Resistance to change: some people rested to the change due to their Mindset saying that they would like to keep on using paper made booklets. To overcome this, different trainings for sensitization took place and definitely all declarers were convinced that the use of to the use of Online Declaration of Assets System (ODAS) is advantageous to them and used it successfully. The Office of the ombudsman also prepared user guides on the use of declaration of assets system (ODAS) in a form of downloadable pdf files, WebPages and videos accessible via internet and advertisement posts on television, and news papers.
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