3 months ago
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The Joint Committee of the ECOWAS Parliament, comprising committees on Administration, Finance, Budget, Public Accounts, Macroeconomic Policy, and Economic Research, has expressed the need to send a parliamentary diplomatic mission to notable parliaments with similar competences to understudy their processes.
Some of the parliaments recommended include the European Union and the East African Legislative Assembly, with a view to understudying and analysing their achievements in the areas of budget development, execution, and control.
This followed the adoption of the Community’s budget report by members of the Joint Committee at the end of the three-day technical session of its delocalized meeting held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Wednesday. The report contained recommendations for further consultations and studies of other similar parliaments across the globe.
The meeting focused on the role of parliament in the development, execution, and control of the ECOWAS budget.
“It is pivotal to send a parliamentary diplomatic mission to notable parliaments with the same or similar competences, such as the European Union and the East African Legislative Assembly, to study and analyse their achievements in these areas,” the report said in part.
The session, presided over by the Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives and Chairman of the Joint Committee, Rep. Benjamin Kalu, proposed budgetary reforms for consideration by leaders of the sub-regional bloc.
Other recommendations include the amendment of the 2016 Supplementary Act, which concerns parliamentary autonomy and powers to the bloc’s leadership; the need for a Resource Pool and Budget Framework to examine the community budget for the effective discharge of the budgetary functions of parliament; as well as a review of the Supplementary Act to give Parliament the required powers to perform core functions such as representation, legislation, and oversight.
The Committee also noted the overlapping oversight functions between the Administration and Finance Committee (AFC) and the ECOWAS Parliament regarding the community budget, and called for alignment of the legal framework to ensure synergy. It recommended the amendment of the Rules of Procedure for the proper functioning of parliament in discharging its duties.
Committee members expressed concerns over budgetary arbitration and stressed the importance of including Parliament in the budget arbitration process.
They also recommended the establishment of a budget harmonisation committee, comprising the ECOWAS Commission, Council of Ministers, and the ECOWAS Parliament, to review the Community budget before finalisation.
Further recommendations included diplomatic engagements with the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government and other leaders to enhance the powers of the ECOWAS Parliament.
The parliamentarians adopted the report and recommendations for onward transmission to the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government through the Council of Ministers.
Earlier, the Speaker of the Parliament, Memounatou Ibrahima, called on member states to increase funding to enable ECOWAS to meet its various challenges. Meanwhile, Committee Chairman Kalu expressed the Parliament’s commitment to transparency in the use of funds.
Kalu said this would be achieved through meaningful engagements with critical stakeholders such as the ECOWAS Commission and the Administration and Finance Committee (AFC), responsible for issues relating to the adoption of the Community’s budget, review of the draft annual budget of the Parliament, and monitoring of financial and administrative management within the parliament.
The Committee is also tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of implementing policies financed by the Community and controlling the execution of the Parliament’s budget.
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