The need to comply to Financial Rules and Regulations, completion of the Institutional Review and a stop to unnecessary expenditure of resources are salient areas that the Assembly wants the EAC to address. At the same time, the Accounts Committee is recommending to the Council of Ministers to urgently address various recurrent challenges dogging the EAC Organs and Institutions.
The areas sum up the content of the Report on the review of the EAC Financial Statements for the year ended 30th June 2013. The Report which was laid on table yesterday by the Chairperson of the Accounts Committee, Hon Jeremie Ngendakumana, is expected to be debated next week.
On the consolidated financial statements of the EAC Organs, the Report reveals that there was over-expenditure on several budget lines and tasks the Council of Ministers to direct the EAC Management to adhere to financial rules and regulations and to seek requisite approvals. It further wants the EAC management to tighten loopholes and rid anomalies in accountabilities for imprest advances.
The report finds the internal audit unit of the EAC to be lacking in sufficient capacity to undertake its plans and relevant reviews. It thus wants capacity gaps addressed holistically both in terms of recruitment and in improvement of internal control systems to enhance security of resources. The Committee also observes the unnecessary delays in finalisation of the institutional review and notes its concern about the endless costs of the exercise to the Community.
“The EAC has several unfilled staff positions and to bridge the gap, the management has often been forced to offer short term renewable contracts which has several disadvantages to both the staff and the organisation”, a section of the report reads in part.
The Committee is recommending for the filling of the various vacant positions to enable the Community to perform to expectations. On the converse, the Committee also wants proper recruitment to avoid promotion of the short term contracts – it notes that some staff have held the temporary positions for a prolonged period, terming the move irregular.
In order to curb unnecessary travel, the Committee urges that the EAC places a limit on the number of days for which an Officer can be away from the duty station and only lift such a limit in exceptional circumstances.
Hon Ngendakumana’s Committee further tasks the Secretariat to address the irregularities in procurement of air tickets for which it (the Secretariat) expensed over USD 3.4 Million. Part of the challenges noted here are lack of authorization and no clear channels of information flow in certain cases. It thus wants the Council of Ministers to direct EAC management to sanction value for money audit in the matter and to institute and enforce prompt recovery measures for unutilised tickets.
On construction works, the Committee is of the view that a building policy and procurement manual for the EAC Secretariat be developed. It tasks EAC to ensure that in future building projects designs are revisited by independent experts. This, the Committee ascertains, shall safeguard the interests of the Community.
The same is recommended for the Bills of Quantities for which findings reveal inadequate descriptions. The Committee is of the view that the Estates Management Office needs strengthening to give the desired capacity to perform estate functions more effectively.
At the EACJ, the Committee terms as wasteful expenditure - citing the example of a meeting taken out of the Office to evaluate bidding/review the Strategic Plan and for which, a total of USD 116,000 was paid out as Daily Subsistence Allowances. Though genuine activities, the Report states that it could have been held in an alternative place that does not require payment of DSA.
The Committee thus recommends to the Assembly to urge the Council of Ministers to direct the EAC Management to amend the financial rules and staff regulations with the aim of discouraging meetings in Moshi and to put an exception clause to really justify the necessity. It also wants the staffing issue at the Court addressed. Various posts are yet to be filled four years later according to the Report.
At EALA, the Committee notes of irregular payment of perdiem amounting to USD 9,084 to facilitate attendance to funeral committees and recommends that the Council of Ministers directs the management to form guidelines on death related expenditure for all EAC Organs and Institutions.
Under the projects, the HIV/AIDS Project is reported to have poorly utilised budgeted funds only managing to spend 47% of total funds earmarked for its programs while the APSA Project has an over-expenditure without approval in breach of regulation 20 of the Financial Rules and regulations.
The Report also calls for prompt measures to be instituted to ensure claiming of refundable VAT in all the EAC Partner States and to ensure supported documentation on all the miscellaneous projects accounts
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For more Information, contact: Bobi Odiko, Senior Public Relations Officer; East African Legislative Assembly; Tel: +255-27-2508240 Cell: +255 787 870945, +254-733-718036; Email: bodiko@eachq.org Web: https://www.eala.org Arusha, Tanzania
