Eala to hold sessions over stalled $103 milion EAC budget

The virtual sitting is among interventions being taken by the regional organisation to address the crisis which is likely to plunge the EAC in a serious cash crunch.

"The Assembly will hold a session on Tuesday (September 5th) to decide the way forward,” said Eala Clerk Alex Lumbumba when he was reached on the matter.

He told The Citizen over the weekend that all the 63 legislators have been notified by the Speaker on the sitting dedicated to the budget crisis.

Besides the MPs, the session will be attended by ex-officio members of the House being the ministers holding the EAC docket from the seven partner states.

The other ex-officio members are the EAC secretary general, the CEO and chief accounting officer of the regional body and counsel to the Community.

He expects the virtual sitting will resolve the crisis which has plunged the House in a collision course with Tanzania and DRC as well as the authoritative Council of Ministers.

The session will once again get inputs from the Eala General Purpose Committee (GPC) which normally scrutinises the budget estimates before they are tabled before the House.

According to a communication seen by The Citizen, Tanzania and DRC rejected assent after citing a number of irregularities which they insist were contrary to the norm.

For Tanzania, a letter to the effect dated July 5th addressed to Eala Clerk was signed by the former Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Dr Stergomena Tax.

The minister said Tanzania has observed that the estimates approved by the Assembly were "inconsistent with budget ceilings that were approved by the Council of Ministers".

The former holder of the docket went on;" To that effect, the United Republic of Tanzania wishes to withhold her assent".

DRC, in a letter signed by its ambassador to Tanzania and who is also accredited to the EAC Jean Pierre Massala echoed Tanzania's concerns.

"The passed Bills did not respect the budget ceilings for each organ/institution (of the EAC) as agreed by the partner states during the meeting of the Council of Ministers", he said.

 The bills in question are the East African Community Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2023 and the EAC Appropriation Bill, 2023 which were tabled and passed by Eala in June.

The two most populous member countries in the bloc of seven objected to the figure ($103million) that was passed, maintaining that it was above the ceiling of $97million earlier approved by the Council of Ministers.

However, DRC which joined the bloc in March last year, raised her concern over failure by the EAC to provide a budget for the purchase of translation equipment during the fiscal year in question.

The equipment was to be used for translation of French and Kiswahili which have since last year been adopted as additional official languages of the Community.

DRC suggested that both Bills should be reconsidered as per the Council of Ministers' earlier decisions on the Supplementary budget for 2022/23 and budget for 202324.

But in a twist of events, Eala last week defended its position on the budget quagmire, saying the estimates that were passed were within the ceiling recommended by the ministers.

"The Council (of Ministers) had recommended a budget ceiling of $103.8million. This is the same amount that the Assembly appropriated", insisted the Clerk.