Regional House activities called off for three months in wake of financial crunch
EALA Speaker Joseph Ntakarutimana has initiated a follow up discussion with Beatrice Moe, Chairperson of the East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers, and Veronica Nduva, EAC Secretary General, to urge partner states with outstanding contributions to remit them promptly.
SATURDAY February 8, 2025
By Patty Magubira
The Tranquility News Reporter, Tanzania
The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has postponed its activities slated for January to June this years, thanks to financial doldrums facing the House and the East African Community integration agenda at large.
The EALA Commission and the committee chairpersons shelved planned activities of the assembly on Friday February 6, 2025, when they met to review the calendar of the House.
EALA Speaker Joseph Ntakarutimana has initiated a follow up discussion with Beatrice Moe, Chairperson of the East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers, and Veronica Nduva, EAC Secretary General, to urge partner states with outstanding contributions to remit them promptly.
“We are optimistic that the ongoing consultations will yield positive outcomes, allowing the assembly to resume its critical functions as soon as possible,” Ntakarutimana says in a statement.
The EALA Commission and the committee chairpersons are expected to sit again in a three month’s period to review the situation.
“EALA remains committed to its mandate of promoting integration through legislation, oversight, and representation,” says Ntakarutimana in the statement issued on Friday February 7, 2025.
The EAC Treaty requires each partner state to contribute $8,298,574 towards the end of every calendar year, but only few of them honour their pledges.
South Sudan topped the list of shame in 2019 with contributions arrears amounting to $27,626,462 followed by Burundi $13,742,399, Tanzania $9,256,405, Kenya $8,459,232, Rwanda $7,115,313 and Uganda $2,293,720.
Partner states’ competing and urgent priorities are overriding those of the EAC, leading to the bloc’s failure to pay salaries to its staff, the East Africa Civil Society Organisation Forum (EACSOF), observed during the period under review.
Implementation of the EAC Treaty, protocols, laws, policies, strategies, plans and programmes had almost come to a halt then, compelling some staff to reportedly take their annual leave and return to their respective home countries.
The activists’ umbrella outfit in the region pointed an accusing finger at the EAC partner states allegedly for losing appetite in the integration agenda.
EACSOF submitted a petition to the EALA, pleading with the House to push the EAC Council of Ministers for it to recommend to the Heads of State Summit to invoke Articles 143 and 146 of the EAC Treaty.
Article 143 says a partner state, which defaults in meeting its financial and other obligations, shall be subject to sanctions which the EAC Council of Ministers recommends to the Heads of State Summit.
Article 146(1) says the summit may suspend a partner state from taking part in activities of the bloc if it fails to fulfill fundamental principles and objectives of the treaty, including the failure to meet financial commitments to the community within a period of 18 months.
And Article 146(2) says a suspended partner state shall cease to enjoy benefits provided for under the treaty but shall continue to be bound by membership obligations until the suspension is lifted.
We are optimistic that the ongoing consultations will yield positive outcomes, allowing the assembly to resume its critical functions as soon as possible,” East African Legislative Assembly Speaker Joseph Ntakarutimana.
In fact, a debate on an alternative financing mechanism for the EAC has been on the table at the EAC Secretariat since 2012. The bloc has been negotiating for an equitable formula for determining how much each country contributes to its chest in an effort to meet its budget, 70 per cent of which is provided by donors.
With a newly devised model, the EAC partner states will be equally contributing 65 per cent of the budget and the remaining 35 per cent inputs will be determined by sizes of their GDPs. Their average nominal GDP per capita for the previous five years as assessed by the World Bank will be applied.
The new model is the brainchild of a study Ernst & Young LLP carried out to find out the EAC structure, programmes and activities that are commensurate with the partner states’ contributions in a bid to guarantee sustainability of the integration agenda and address the dependency syndrome rocking the bloc.
The 24th Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State held in Arusha, Tanzania, on November 30, 2024, directed the Council of Ministers to expedite the implementation of the road map for implementing the financing formula and report progress to the 25th meeting of the summit.
The EAC Heads of State Summit also directed the Council of Ministers to finalise the schedule of sanctions to be implemented alongside the financing formulaΩ
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The Tranquility News Reporter/Sub Editor, Tanzania
Patty Magubira is an experienced environmental and business editor whose career started at the Tanzania's state-owned newspaper - The Daily News. He is a man of perfection. Aided by his extensive training as a community forestry expert before joining Tanzania School of Journalism. Magubira had successfully held various key posts in newsrooms, giving him an unmatched connections in media fraternity. Having worked as a bureau chief in Arusha and Mwanza, he managed to build a team work, boosting sales to the highest level ever. He was then promoted to a sub-editor after completing a training in Nairobi, Kenya. His incredible experience, critical thinking and exposure are critical to the quality of any media outlet.
