Summary This study examines the tensions between best-practice institutional benchmarks and local operational constraints in a developing country institution-building process. Drawing on data from document studies and key informant interviews, we investigate if and how staff capacity constraints affect the achievement of the programmatic ideal of supreme audit institution (SAI) independence, and what tradeoffs this gives rise to in the development of a SAI oversight function in Rwanda. The empirical results suggest that capacity constraints negatively affect important aspects of SAI independence, and point to the need for contextual institutional solutions to safeguard independence as well as to tackle capacity constraints.