Rubavu: Since the Goma–Gisenyi border (Rwanda–DR Congo) crossing stopped closing at night last month, its customs officers have had to stop sleeping at home each night, though officials in Kigali contest this information. As RNA reports, it seems even complaining about the situation could cause trouble for the affected officers.

West of the paved road straddling Lake Kivu, by the moto stand and yellow-striped barrier marking the edge of the country, Edward Murenzi and Jean-Luc Adanua sell visas and collect import taxes as people arrive from the Congolese town of Goma.

All last Saturday, there weren't any other customs officers: not when the lightning lit the lake in the evening or when the moto drivers took shelter as the rain started pouring at night.

Both Murenzi and Adanua declined interviews about how long their working hours have become since the border stopped closing. Sources who frequent the border have seen both employees at their office during the day and one staying around each night: that is, they work 40-hour shifts.

It stands to reason their hours only grew recently. As relations with Congo have improved, the border's opening hours have grown: from 11 hours per day in 2007 to 17 hours per day in 2008 and finally 24 hours per day beginning April 19, 2010, according to the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA).

The government tax-collection agency is adamant that four customs officers work at the border.

“Of course, when you open 24 hours you have to deploy more staff. It is automatic,” said Gerald Mukubu, the agency's spokesperson, in his office in Kigali.

Mukubu said that before April 19 there were only two officers.

“The other two came on April 19th,” he said. “We work in shifts. Two work in the morning hours, and the other two shift on the night hours.”

But Mukubu wouldn't provide the names of the other two officers, and it was clear to everybody at the border after midnight early last Sunday morning — the guards, the three moto drivers and the group of five party-goers crossing into Goma — that Adanua was working alone.

Mukubu pointed out that the officers' counterparts on the Congolese side of the border don't work at night, so travelers crossing into Congo from Rwanda cannot buy visas or carry merchandise after dark. He said the border isn't busy and few people cross into Rwanda at night, so customs officers can rest at work.

Customs hours are growing country-wide as Rwanda strives to make borders less of a burden on trade. President Paul Kagame propelled the notion in both the East Africa Community, which includes Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, and in the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Region, which includes Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Katuna–Gatuna border with Uganda opened 24 hours a day starting in March, and plans are underway to do the same before year's end at two more crossings with Uganda, four more with Congo and two with Burundi.

Mukubu believes the Rwanda Revenue Authority is able to handle the new hours. “We have enough staff in customs,” he said. “If there is an increase in volume of transactions, the customs department is ready to deploy enough staff.”

Mukubu rebutted the comments of people on the ground in Gisenyi who refused to be named in print but clarified in person and by telephone that there are only two customs officers at the border.

“I don't know the person who knows this information,” he said. “Me, I gave this information as the spokesman of the institution.”

Even though the length of their shifts has tripled in the past two years and the Rwanda Revenue Authority hasn't said it's paying them higher wages for their efforts, Murenzi and Adanua aren't complaining.

The agency itself forbade them.

“Information obtained from another party is regarded as being unofficial and whoever has given out such information is liable to the likely consequences for the damages caused,” it explained in a written statement given to Rwanda News Agency by Mukubu Thursday morning, after permission was requested to interview the officers.

At the border 2 a.m., sheltered from the downpour, Adanua gave a plain-language translation.

“I don't want to lose my job,” he said, denying none of this information but declining to comment without his boss's permission.