BUJUMBURA June 6th (ABP) – The Cabinet meeting held on June 1 under the chairmanship of the President of the Republic, analyzed several points including the note on the national census of the geo-referenced and digitized real estate heritage of the State.
That note has been drawn up with the aim of implementing the recommendations of government retreats relating to the proper management of State assets, as well as the Government Action Plan 2021-2022 which has retained, among other priority actions, the national census of the State’s real estate assets.
Given that the State’s assets cover a very vast field (real estate assets, financial assets and movable assets including rolling stock and machinery), the Government has seen fit to start with the State’s real estate assets (land and/or real estate) which occupies a very predominant part in the country’s economy.
As a result, a total of 17,545 buildings were identified. The majority of buildings are made up of schools and administrative buildings. Data from the census show a number of 372 state buildings that are rented. For this category of rented buildings, the finding is that the list of rented buildings is not exhaustive, because some managers in charge of State assets did not want to communicate the number of employees in those buildings and the amount real perceived. Moreover, the rental contracts drawn up do not comply with the regulations in force and the revenue from the rental is not paid directly into the general account of the Treasury. Those rented state buildings are poorly maintained and the equipment poorly maintained.
That census therefore constitutes an important database which will allow the easy implementation of actions related to the proper management of that State heritage, the automatic updating of data without resorting to another census, the consultation any time and in real time of the desired data of the components of the State’s real estate assets.
For good financial governance, that work should be supplemented by the identification of other categories of State assets, in particular financial assets, in order to have complete basic tools with a view to contributing to the development of the national economy. Other actions are also necessary, in particular the creation of State heritage management services in all ministries, in order to guarantee the sustainability of that work.
That census constitutes, moreover, an important database which will allow the taking into account of the real estate heritage of the State in the national accounts and which will change in a significant way the index of human development of Burundi which is often classified in the world’s poorest countries. After analysis, the Cabinet meeting appreciated the work that has been carried out and made observations and recommendations to carry out regular monitoring of State buildings and an annual update of these buildings, to proceed with the valuation of all buildings belonging to the State, set new rental rates for these buildings and continue the inventory to have the complete situation of the State’s assets.
The Cabinet meeting also analyzed three ratification projects. The first is the bill on the ratification by the Republic of Burundi of the bilateral Agreement on the abolition of visas for the benefit of holders of diplomatic or service passports between the Government of the Republic of Burundi and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Algeria. and Popular, signed on March 17, 2022 in Algiers. The second is the Bill on ratification between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Government of the Republic of Burundi with a view to avoiding double taxation and preventing tax evasion in the area of income tax.
The third is that on the ratification by the Republic of Burundi of the General Cooperation Agreement between the Government of Burundi and the Government of the State of Israel.
Those three projects aim to intensify the ties of friendship and cooperation, to further strengthen the bilateral relations between Burundi and these three countries. Ratification of the bilateral agreement on the abolition of visas for the benefit of holders of diplomatic or service passports between the Government of the Republic of Burundi and the Government of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria will facilitate the movement of national people of the parties to the agreement, on the one hand, and the intra-African movement of nationals of the continent, on the other.
With regard to the agreement between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Government of the Republic of Burundi with a view to avoiding double taxation and preventing tax evasion with respect to income tax, it with the aim of promoting economic relations and above all of improving cooperation in tax matters. That agreement constitutes an appropriate framework for economic cooperation and a basic instrument for commercial exchanges, intending to eliminate double taxation and prevent tax evasion with respect to taxes, without creating possibilities of non-taxation or reduced taxation through tax evasion or evasion.
With regard to the General Cooperation Agreement between the Government of Burundi and the Government of the State of Israel, the areas of cooperation within the framework of the said agreement are, among others, agriculture, research and development, economic and fiscal issues, trade, technical cooperation and other areas of mutual interest on which both parties will agree. After discussion and debate, the three ratification projects were adopted.