Regional lawmakers, ministers meet over financial default

East African Community ministers for regional cooperation and members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), yesterday, met in Arusha, Tanzania in bid to find a solution to the longstanding problem of member states that default on their financial obligations. The House’s Committee on General Purpose, which was last week tasked with following up with the matter wanted to hear from the ministers before the House debates the “perplexing” matter and takes a decision today. Last month, in a petition to EALA, the region’s civil society body threatened to sue member states that default on their financial obligations. At the end of the first quarter of this year, it was only Rwanda and Uganda that had remitted for the 2019/20 fiscal year. The East African Civil Society Organisation Forum (EACSOF) threatened to petition the East African Court of Justice, noting that they were alarmed by the failure of partner states to meet their financial obligations to the EAC bloc. After their meeting on Wednesday, MP Aden Omar Abdikadir, the Chairperson of EALA’s Committee on General Purpose, told The New Times that they met members of the Council of Ministers specifically for the latter “to answer on the issues raised” in the petition. Abdikadir said they demanded clarification from the region’s central decision-making and governing organ. “The Committee also yesterday met the leaders of the civil society who brought the petition. The committee will table a report before the House tomorrow [Thursday],” he added. The civil society groups argue that the failure to achieve 100 per cent compliance is a threat to the survival of the six-member bloc. Average aggregate contributions for the 2018/19 financial year were at just 59 per cent, to the EAC, which is already suffering a zero per cent budget increase for almost a decade. Early last week, Abdikadir told The New Times that given “the urgency of this matter,” he expected things to move fast. The House’s current sitting ends on Thursday. For long, internal resources have remained constrained as countries continuously failed to make their obligatory remittances to the EAC Secretariat on time. editor@newtimesrwanda.com

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Regional lawmakers, ministers meet over financial default