Writes Leo Odera Omolo.
INFORMATION EMERGING FROM THE East African Community’s secretariat in Arusha says that the Secretary General Richard Sezibera is pushing forward for merger of the budget for all institutions attached to the EAC to help improve their funding.
Somme semi autonomous institutions like the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization {LNVFO} and The Inter-University Council of East Africa{IUCEA] have been operating below budget due to a funding gap after partner states failed to meet their quotas for the financial year that ends this June.
Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, which make up LVFO, have paid 27.6 per cent of the expected USD 837,258.33 while partner states have paid less than 40 per cent of the USD 800,000 they are supposed to pay to IUCEA.
The budgets of the two institutions will be merged with that of the EAC for the first time in the 2012 / 2013 financial year, but partner states will still pay their quotas to thee institutions independently.
Dr Sezibera who was on a visit to Uganda last week to inspect the projects of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission {LVBC} and LVFO however, said in future, the secretariat will have the powers to compel partner states to pay their quotas to all institutions of the EAC on time.”If the money is coming directly from the ministries of education and agriculture into the EAC, we have more leverage,”said Dr Sezibera during a brief address to newsmen at the end of his Ugandan tour.
The secretariat via instruction from the Council to the Summit, will force defaulting member countries to pay up, with help from their presidents.
The EAC secretariat is also seeking to strengthen IUCEA, which received the mandate of the in February to accredit universities in the region through the Inter University Council of East Africa Amendment Bill 2010.
The Secretary-General is also looking at increasing the mandate of the LVFO to cover all the waters of East Africa and for the region to have full control of the fish resources.
Expected Rwanda, Burundi membership.This process will start with the admission of Rwanda and Burundi into LVFO in July this year.
The coming financial year will also see EAC turn LVFO into an East African Fisheries Organization EALFO using a protocol or an East African Legislative Assembly Bill. The EALVFO will help seal loopholes in over-fishing which are exacerbated by having different administration units controlling different waters. EALVFO is also expected to improve the region’s capacity to effectively police its waters.
He went on,”As we address the issue of Somalia, the governments of East Africa have to ensure control of their waters,” Dr Sezibera said, adding that Somalia’s problems like piracy are a result of that country’s failure to control its territorial waters.
The EAC Chief Pointed out that illegal fishing of the Somali coast had denied local residents a key source of livelihood.
The Lake Fisheries Organization promotes the sustainable use of the water bodies resources.
Ends