Eala members finally prevail in showdown over Sh5.3 billon arrears

Kigali. The standoff between the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) and the East African Community (EAC) secretariat over unsettled claimstotaling $2.3 million (Sh5.3 billion) may be over now.

The legislators will finally get their outstanding arrears for sessions held in 2020 to 2021.

That was during the peak of Covid-19 pandemic which forced the regional Assembly to opt for virtual sessions as travel restrictions were set.

It was also the time the EAC found itself in a deep cash crisis due to multiple reasons, including the outbreak of the pandemic.

On Friday, the legislators the EAC Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2022 at the end of their sitting in Kigali.

The Bill grants the EAC secretary general the authority to appropriate the sum of $2,620,800 out of the budget to meet additional expenditure for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2023.

The Supplementary Budget ($2.6 million) for 2022/23 fiscal year was adopted by the authoritative EAC Council of Ministers last July.

It was tabled before the Assembly last Monday for the first reading and thereafter to the relevant Committee for scrutiny.

Out of the total sum of $2.6 million for the supplementary budget, $2,317,850 will be spent to pay outstanding arrears to the MPs for the sessions held in 2020 and 2021.

In an apparent sign of relief, the House Committee on General Purpose, which deals with budget matters, expressed its gratitude for the development.

“The Committee commends the Council of Ministers and the EAC deputy secretary general (Finance and Administration) for paying arrears for members,” it said in a report.

The report, accessed by The Citizen, further noted that the sum that was allocated to pay arrears “was only for members of Eala”.

Similar arrears to the component staff of the Assembly like the Hansard reporters and other technical people normally involved were omitted.

Despite the Council of Ministers directing that arrears also owed to the technical staff be also roped in, the request has not been submitted.

The EAC deputy secretary general holding the Finance and Administration docket, Mr Steven Mlote, said the technical staff deserve to be paid like the MPs.

However, he told the Committee before the Supplementary budget was tabled before the House that it was the office of the Clerk which had to submit the request.

He said the secretariat, the executive arm of the EAC responsible for budget matters, was concerned that the Clerk had not “considered this as a matter of urgency”.

“It is evident that the Parliamentarians could not have conducted business without the support of the technical staff of the Assembly,” he said.

Eala and the Secretariat, the key organs of the Community, were thrown into a collision course from the middle of 2020 over unsettled claims for the lawmakers.

The saga reached a point where Eala issued an ultimatum threatening to file a suit before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). The lawmakers insisted that their emoluments had been outstanding since March 2020 year when Eala opted for virtual sittings in the wake of Covid-19.