Surely you're joking Mr Kagame

Immigration deposit? Immigration donation, more like...

The tale of my battle to wrestle back my 1000USD from the Goverment of Rwanda continues. I went to Immigration on that Monday and after waiting two hours and nearly having a melt down in the process, I finally got my letter.

So its happily ever after? Not quite....
Immigration tell me I need to bring the slip to Rwanda Revenue Authority to get my cash. So bright and early the next morning I go to the shiny new RRA offices (all paid for by the British taxpayer I might add). I talked to 3 different people before I finally found somone who understood I was trying to get my deposit back and not PAY it! There was then a little confusion since I paid the deposit to the Banque Nationale de Rwanda in 2005 and since then operations have changed and been taken over by RRA. After a few phone calls to the boss, we were in business. I was told to call the Acting Head of Finance the following friday to see if she had treated my request. Y'see as the letter from Immigration was addressed to the Commisioner General of RRA, the commisioner would have to review the letter and scribble something on it before it would be treated.

I was busy on Friday so I called back last Monday morning instead, where I talked to the nice Finance lady a couple of times before we worked out that I could pick up my letter on Tuesday morning. When I got there on Tuesday I found the new building atomspherically being circled by vultures. My friend Kieran the Taxman, a fellow Irish working on a DFID contract in RRA for more years then he cares to admit, assured me that that birds of prey were there for the crickets who swarm on the building becuase of the floodlights and not because of any kinship between taxmen and vultures. In any case I felt like I was approaching the bad guys castle in some fairy story.

After an hour of waiting for the finance lady to come to her office or answer her phone, I left. Sometime around 2pm, she called to say I could pick up the letter so I went back and got the letter. The copy of a letter address to the Secretary General of the National Treasury in Minecofin (Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning), directing THEM to repay my immigration deposit.

Lets recap here: in order to get 1000usd back I have had to spend 5 weeks and visit no less than 6 goverement and parastatal bodies looking for various forms. Now I've been around enough to know about the convoluted processes in goverment but this was getting bloody riduculous. The National Treasury were now getting involved in the fiasco?!?

After another small meltdown and taking the decision that this was not the week to reduce my dose of tranquilizers, I hopped on a moto and went to Minecofin to see what horrors awaited me there.

I was shown to the central secretariat where I found the ICT director, who I knew from my time with the Ministry of Infrastructure. After the usual greetings and general chit chat it was ascertained that the orginal of my letter had not yet arrived from RRA - where I had just come from! I was silently fuming....why give me a copy of a letter and tell me to investigate here and leave the orginal back at the office I just came from...everyone told me it was madness to chase the immigration deposit, now I was fuelled by pure thickheadedness...the more shit they threw at me, the more determined I was to cut through it. Maybe that IS the definition of madness??

So, the nice lady at the secretariat told me there was nothing they could do for me that day, esp since all the directors were at the annual Goverment-Donor hug in for the next 2 days. The DPCG Conferenence as its called proports to be a partnership excercise between GoR and its main donors but mostly serves to tell the Govt what the donors are prepared to give money for in the next year so that they can adjust their plans accordingly. So I left in search of some lunch and some tranquilizers.

I returned for more punishment yesterday morning, to be told that the letter had only just reached the secretary of the SG of the national tresury and that I should check back next monday 3rd dec.

My flight to Europe leaves on 16th and I was hoping to get out of Rwanda before then. Its looking a bit tight though...once the SG gives his order the cash goes from the National Treasury to the National Bank and then to my Bank. God only knows how long that will that. As a side note, back in 2005 when I made the deposit the process pretty much stopped once Immigration gave the all clear. Immigration would issue a letter to the National Bank to pay back the money, in cash if desired - essentially subventing the whole RRA-Minecofin-Bank transfer route.

Sometimes there's nothing like progress to really screw things up...