“The matter is so critical that the Assembly and a number of institutions and organs literally postponed or reduced some of their activities last year,” EALA SPEAKER DANIEL KIDEGA
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Speaker of the EA House Kidega renewed his call on the partner states to remit their budget contributions in time
Kampala. Funding challenges facing the East African Community (EAC) and its organs and institutions once again cropped up here yesterday as the regional Parliament began its two week session in the Ugandan capital.
The Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) Daniel Kidega renewed his call on the partner states to remit their budget contributions in time so that the regional body can smoothly get on with implementation of its projects and programmes.
“The matter is so critical that the Assembly and a number of institutions and organs literally postponed or reduced some of their activities last year,” he said during a press conference at the Uganda Parliament premises where Eala session will take place.
He said the contribution by the five partner states - Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda - currently stands at 37 per cent which, according to him, painted “a less than positive picture of the direction necessary to drive the Community”.
Mr Kidega could not give a breakdown of updated remittances so far made by the member countries during 2016/2017 financial year. But he insisted the situation does not augur well on the commitment of some bureaucrats responsible for regional integration in the governments of the EA states.
Responding to inquiries by journalists on the often suggested alternative funding mechanism for the EAC, the Speaker admitted that nothing tangible had taken place despite a directive once made by the Heads of State during their summit to fast track the idea.
However, he called on the EAC Council of Ministers - the policy organ of the Community - to speedily implement the Sustainable Funding Mechanism for the EAC as directed by the regional leaders in their recent summit.
One of the suggestions made was for the bloc to remit at least one per cent of the customs duties to fund the operations of the EAC organs being the Secretariat, Eala, East African Court of Justice (EACJ) and a host of institutions spread across the region.
At one time EAC relied on at least 70 per cent of its annual annual budget on the development partners but this has declined to about 50 per cent while the rest comes from annual contributions from the member states.
During the current financial year, all the five member countries were to contribute a combined total of $ 47.5 million (or about $ 8.3m each) while the development partners were to raise $ 46.9m out of an expenditure budget of about $ 101.6m.
The Citizen has not been updated on the current status of remittances to the Arusha coffers by the partner states which officials of the Secretariat - the executive arm of the Community which handles financial matters - say keep on changing each time cash is injected.
