By Spy Uganda
Arusha: Employees of the East African Legislative Assembly are yet to get their June salaries, while members of parliament have gone three months without their full pay as the cash-strapped institution scrambles to put together its 2021 annual budget whose deadline passed last week.
The EALA MPS earn a basic salary of $6,408 plus allowances that could amount to about $14,000. The 54 MPs are entitled to $160 each per sitting.
TheSpy Uganda has also learnt that EAC employees whose renewable contracts ended will no longer be allowed to perform their duties as they are now persona-non-grata at the Community.
This follows expulsion of South Sudan and Burundi expulsion from the East African Community (EAC) after the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) passed a resolution for their removal for failure to remit annual contributions.
South Sudan was also last month suspended from the African Union for failure to remit contributions amounting to over $9 million.
EAC member states are required to pay $8 million every year to the bloc but according to the report by The East African, by 10 June Burundi had arrears of some $15 million while South Sudan owes $27.8 million.
Other EAC states that have arrears include Uganda ($1.6 million), Rwanda ($2.7 million) and Tanzania ($4.2 million). Kenya is the only country out of the six members that has fully paid its annual contributions.
“If one Partner State delays or withholds remittances, then there is a subsequent shortfall and repercussions. This is unfortunately becoming the new normal and there are now activities being suspended owing to lack of funds,” said Abdullah Hasnuu Makame.
The EAC is the regional intergovernmental organisation of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The body aims to widen and deepen co-operation among the partner states and other regional economic communities in, among others, political, economic and social fields for their mutual benefit.
