A member of the East African Legislative Assembly wants to regions EAC ministers to move to Arusha, Tanzania, in order to make smooth operations of the bloc.
Contributing to debate on the audited Accounts of EAC for the period ended June 30, 2015, Judith Pareno noted that the report, for the better part, paints a negative picture of the Community.
“It means we are not planning well and are not adhering to the Financial Rules and Regulations. We need to have the Ministers of EAC resident in Arusha to do their political bit and supervisory bit and together with the Secretary General, they will let the Community move forward,” Hon Pareno said.
Earlier, her colleagues Dr Francois Xavier Kalinda (Rwanda) and Hon Bernard Mulengani (Uganda) had complained of irregular recruitment of staff and poor coordination of procurement meetings, respectively. According to Dr Kalinda, the irregular recruitment of staff at the EAC ‘was glaring’ and it presents legal challenges for both the concerned staff and the Community itself, while Hon Mulengani remarked that diligent internal controls within the Finance department were needed. He also stated that lack of quorum was hampering co-ordination of the set procurement meetings.
The report takes an incisive analysis of all the organs, institutions and projects of the EAC whose budget during the period under review was USD 125,643, 894.
Actual expenditure for the EAC totaled USD 81,349,607, pegged at 65%, while the outstanding VAT claimable from authorities in the Partner States is USD 847,183.
