Stalled EAC budget to be tabled afresh amid debate

“Initially, it was proposed that the House plenary be held next Thursday (September 28), but this has been pushed to October 3 to allow for enough preparations,” she said.

Another official reached out to, said that due to the cash crunch facing the EAC because of the budget quagmire, the plenary will be held virtually.

Only members of the General Purpose Committee (GPC) of the House will be in Arusha physically to participate. The rest will participate through a video link.

The Eala Commission, which is the governing board of the Assembly, was locked in a meeting for a better part of Friday to discuss the timeline of the special sitting.

He said the budget would be tabled afresh as per the budget proposals earlier approved by the EAC Council of Ministers during its session in Burundi early this year.

The Council, which is a powerful organ of the Community, had set a ceiling of $97 million as the regional organisation’s budget for 2023/24.

However, Eala, the legislative arm of the EAC, has been accused of compromising the figure without the approval of the ministerial organ.

Instead, the Assembly tabled and passed an annual budget of $103 million in June, well above the ceiling set by the Council.

The move to take the annual estimates back to the House may bring some relief to the EAC, which, technically, has been operating with any budget since July 1, 2023.

Although officials of the regional body have distanced themselves from the issue, the impact of delayed budget implementation is clear.

Lack of budget has also seen a paucity of meetings and related activities at the EAC headquarters, which before the crisis had been a venue for conference delegates.

Incidentally, the first victim of the cash crunch is Eala itself, which holds regular plenary sessions across the region on a rotational basis among the member states.

Eala MPs are often involved in a number of oversight activities on integration projects in the partner states as well as sensitization of the people on integration matters.

With the ensuing budget quagmire, some EAC staff said they were concerned about their welfare, while key officials are worried about accumulating debts to the suppliers. The implementation of the budget in question hit a brick wall on July 5th, a few weeks after it was passed by Eala after Tanzania and DR Congo refused assent.

The two countries cited a number of irregularities related to the budget figures and accused Eala of overstepping its mandate by tabling and passing budget estimates that were above the ceiling earlier approved by the Council of Ministers.

The Council is an authoritative organ of the Community answerable only to the Summit of Heads of State and oversees the budget administration at the EAC, among other roles. Tanzania’s objection was first communicated by the former Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Minister, Stergomena Tax, in a letter to Eala Clerk on July 5.

This was followed by another letter on August 22, the latter drawing no response, unlike the earlier one in which Eala pleaded for Tanzania to change its hardline stance.

Mr January Makamba, who succeeded Dr Tax on August 30th, told a virtual special sitting of Eala held on Tuesday to discuss the crisis that Tanzania favoured reconsideration of the budget by the House.