Eala wants fast-tracking of bills to avoid backlog

Arusha. Bills tabled before the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) should be fast-tracked because their delay would not do anything good for the region.

Eala Speaker Martin Ngoga told the just-ended session of the House that bills should be acted upon quickly to avoid a backlog.

He made the remarks as two critical bills for the envisaged EA Monetary Union were tabled before the regional Parliament which had been holding a plenary session in Kampala adjourned on Thursday.

The EAC Monetary Institute Bill, 2017 and the EAC Statistics Bureau Bill, 2017 were tabled by the Chair of the Council of Ministers Julius Wandera Maganda.

“Though the bills were tabled by the Council of Ministers, they were coming to the House close to two years late,” he said.

He, therefore, directed that the Assembly give both bills “due attention deserved”, implying they should be fast-tracked.

The two bills sailed through the first reading and were committed to the respective committees of Eala.

The EAC Monetary Institute Bill is aimed to provide for the establishment of the East African Monetary Institute as an institution of the Community responsible for the preparatory work for the proposed EAC Monetary Union.

In accordance with Article 9 of the EAC Treaty, the bill provides for the functions, powers, governance and its funding for the institute as well as other related matters.

The EAC Statistics Bureau Bill, 2017, on the other hand, seeks to establish the Statistics Bureau as an institution of the Community responsible for statistics to support the Monetary Union.

The proposed institute will add up as other institutions of the East African Community (EAC) and will be one of the four key institutions envisaged to fast-track operationalization of the EAC Monetary Union.

The others will be the EAC Statistics Bureau, the EAC Financial Serivices Commission and the EAC Surveillance, Compliance and Enforcement Commission.

Also once mulled is establishment of the East African Central Bank. The single currency shall have to be realized after a ten year period of implementation.

The Monetary Union is intended to promote and sustain a zone of sound monetary policy and prudent fiscal policies to reinforce the needed monetary policies across the region.