Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) have requested that the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat settle over $1 million outstanding allowances owed to them.
EALA counts 54 elected members – with nine from each of the six EAC Partner States.
The outstanding allowances accrued over a one-year period from 2019 to 2020, according to MP Dennis Namara, Chairperson of the Committee on General Purpose at EALA.
Namara was in Arusha on Tuesday, June 29, presenting the report of the Committee on the EAC supplementary budget for the financial year 2020/2021 (the current one) to EALA Plenary Sitting which is considering the EAC budget.
The supplementary budget is needed to fill the financing gaps in order to finalise undertaken activities under the EAC organs and institutions.
Namara said that the Committee noted that the Assembly submitted a request for supplementary budget amounting to over $1 million to cater for the members’ daily subsistence allowances and sitting allowances during the consideration of the vote on account and the EAC budget estimates for the financial year 2020/2021.
The above expenses, he said, “were as a result of the failure by the Council of Ministers to present the EAC budget to the Assembly for consideration and approval before June 30, 2020.”
The Chairperson of Council of Ministers of EAC presented the Community’s budget for 2020/2021 in August last year. As a result, he said, the Committee proceeded to consider the request for the vote on account and the budget.
He added that the Assembly was also compelled to convene special sittings to consider and approve that.
“The expenses arising out of the consideration of the vote on account and the budget were not catered for in EAC budget for the financial year 2020/2021,” he said.
At its 42nd extraordinary meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers held in May this year, he said, the Council considered the supplementary budget request from the Assembly.
However, he said, it only approved the sitting allowances to a tune of more than $252,000, and recalled its decision of not paying EALA members daily subsistence allowances (DSAs) for meeting activities undertaken virtually.
Namara said that the supplementary financial plan amounting to over $252,000 of the EALA is to cater for the expenses incurred towards the activities undertaken from August 10 to October 10, 2020; December 10, 2020 and January 27, 2021.
The Committee established that during the Council’s meeting that took the decision not to pay the MPs their DSAs for virtual meetings, he said “it was the United Republic of Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan that strongly supported this position, while the other three Partner States [Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda] supported the idea of paying members their DSAs since it is an entitlement while on an official duty.”
Promise to address the issue
Meanwhile, Namara said that during the interaction with the Committee, the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers informed its members that an extraordinary Council meeting had been convened to take place on July 5, 2021 to resolve this matter in favour of the Assembly so that MPs are paid the allowances in question.
“The Committee recommends that the 43rd extraordinary Council meeting scheduled for Monday, July 5, upholds its commitment to vacate its earlier decision of not paying members outstanding daily subsistence and allowances,” he said,
entirenganya@newtimesrwanda.com
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