EAC 

Sunday, April 13, 2014 

EAC to make big budget cuts

ARUSHA, Tanzania - The East African Community (EAC) Secretariat budget, which is largely funded by development partners, is set to slashed by $10 million, next fiscal year.

The 2014/15 budget, which was approved by the East African Legislative Assembly had budgeted $130 million for this fiscal year.

Jean-Claude Nsengiyumva, the Deputy EAC Secretary General in-charge of Finance and Administration, said last week  the Secretariat would be tabling a $120 million budget for 2014/2015.

Some $87 million is expected to finance the Secretariat’s activities at the Arusha headquarters.

Nearly 70% of the budget is  funded by donors, with the remainder contributed  bythe partner states. The 2013/2014 budget also happened to be $10 million less than the previous fiscal year, which was $140 million.

In the current budget the Community’s organs got a total of $87 million, with the Secretariat awarded $69,787,824, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) getting $13,089,982 and the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) allocated $4,279,489.

The rest of the money went to the Inter-University Council for East Africa, which operates from Uganda and which received $9,692,785, while the remaining  $3,203,042 was earmarked for the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization.

Sources say about  $37,297,442 of the 2013/2014 budget, is being financed by the five partner states of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania.

By Elisha Mayallah, Sunday, April 13th, 2014