Approval of EAC emergency vote, budget progress a relief

This turn has put to an end, hopefully in a stable manner, a rather acrimonious situation where members of the EALA were putting to doubt ministers’ sense of duty, observance of EAC protocols, for failure to prepare the EAC budget proposals on time. Obviously where were many things to think about, not least of which was the Covid-19i pandemic as it disturbed revenue expectations all over.

At the start of the week EALA members finally sat to endorse the 68bn/- ‘Vote on Account’ to help run EAC institutions until October, with the House ready for the main 2020/-2021 Fiscal Year budget plenary session expected to start August 21. With nearly a month having elapsed from the sitting of the EALA session where the Budget would have been presented up to this week, doubt had started creeping into the minds of a breadth of observers on the issue. The fact that there were tit for tat actions in relation to air travel or ‘open skies’ in the wake of Covid-19 restrictions or relaxations didn’t alleviate this mood, at all.

Early on Monday, the EALA session considered the report of the Committee on General Purposes on the EAC Vote-On-Account for the first quarter of fiscal year 2020/2021. It was the first time the matter had been broached since the EALA members unanimously stayed a request by the EAC Council of Ministers to approve a Vote on Account of USD 29,402,292 in its July sitting. This emergency vote is meant to support normal operations of the EAC, waiting for the tabling of actual budget estimates by the council.

There were a number of legal and procedural tussles on the matter at EALA, where a seemingly normal prerogative could this time be put to the regional legislative body while it failed in the past. It was the move by EALA Speaker Ngoga Martin to put forward the emergency vote proposal, where reports say “upon request by the House agreed to invoke section 12 of the EAC Budget Act 2008, to extend the period for consideration of the EAC Budget for fiscal year 2020/2021.” EALA members kept insisting that the Secretariat, via the Secretary General, work closely with the Council of Ministers “to comply with provisions of the treaty and the EAC Budget protocol in regards to budget preparation and presentation.”

It can only be surmised that there was a certain amount of confusion with regard to budgeting for EAC activities, as member states often fail to pay up their membership fees on time. That means the proper issue of budgetary requirements is chiefly a foreign aid issue, in which case economic diplomacy must have worked this time as well. It can’t be said where post-budgetary funding could have been obtained but there are new inflows which can help the EAC run its activities, like regional post-Covid 19 measures.

So long as the council has now been able to give assurance to the regional legislative body that they will a budget framework within the week, it can be said that the air has been cleared. For in the first place the key problem isn’t finance but strategic intentions of the member states. Loyalty to EAC isn’t a fixed idea.