By Melvin Tejan Mansaray, Abuja-Nigeria, Saturday 4th
December 2021
Hon. Mahama Ayariga, a member of the Ghanaian Parliament
delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
Parliament, Rapporteur Peace, Security, and African Peer Review Mechanism, has
said that external influence on the Community 2022 draft consolidated budget
will have serious consequences on the independence and autonomy on the
Community's Institutions.
Hon. Ayariga was speaking in an exclusive interview
following the presentation of the final report of the 'Thirtieth Meeting of the
Administration and Finance Committee (AFC)' - held from 25th November - 2nd
December 2021 at the ongoing ECOWAS
Parliament's Second Ordinary Session of 2021 (November 29th to December 18th,
2021) which contained the 2022 Draft Consolidated Community Budget of ECOWAS Institutions tabled for
Members of the ECOWAS Parliament (MEP)
on Saturday 4th December 2021 at the
International Conference Center,
Garki, Abuja-Nigeria.
The Chairman of the
AFC, ECOWAS Commission, Mohamed NurudeenIsmaila said the proposed 2022 Draft Consolidated
Community Budget of ECOWAS Institutions
is in the tune of African Development
Bank Units of Account (UA)
394.110.921 (USD 541,941,927) and it is realistic, noting that “the budget
is based on realistic figures on the initial income."
The AFC final report captured in Item No. 9, 'Presentation
and Consideration of the 2022 Draft Consolidated Budget of ECOWAS
Institutions,' noting that, "The Commissioner for Finance, Halima Ahmed
presented the draft 2022 consolidated budget of all the ECOWAS Institutions,
except that of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), which are
under the supervision of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers."
The proposed 2022
Draft Consolidated Community Budget described the total income of the 2021
approved budget at UA 398,044,626 and proposes for the year 2022 the amount of
UA 394,110,921, with the finance of 1.0% (-3,933,705).
The 2022 draft consolidated community budget of the
Community Institutions also captured a
47.9% constituting UA 183,891,363 from Community Levy, Year-End Bank Balances
of UA 13,591,989 (3.4%), Arrears of Community Levy Proceeds of UA 72,987,460
(18.5%), Arrears of Contribution
UA1,768,710 (0.4%),Other Income UA 798,130 (0.2%) and External Funding
of UA 116,073,269 (29.5%).
According to Hon. Ayariga, the amount of external funding
influence on the proposed 2022 budget
of the Community Institutions must be seriously considered as it tends to
influence the ideologies and alignment of the Community by the external
financiers.
"If you take a look at the proposed 2022 Community
Budget close to thirty percent of it is coming from external sources, even the
budget of the institutions themselves, if you compare it to our own internally
generated income from the community institutions - the income does not meet the
threshold of our institutional total budget expenditure," Hon. Ayariga
said.
He added that:
"With close to thirty percent of the budget coming from external
sources, you can't guarantee the autonomy and independence of the ECOWAS bloc.
External forces give you money for nothing, they give you money for influence
and so that you can toe ideological lines and pursue their interests. Nobody
gives money for free."
Hon. Ayariga said the basic budget of the ECOWAS Community
must be met by the various countries themselves.
"If external funding is coming for programs and
projects, that I think you can manage the extent to which it can be used to
mount pressure on the Community to pursue an interest that will not be truly
aligned to the interest of the community, that's why I raised a concern about
how we can sustain our independence and autonomy if we are depending so much on
external funding for budget," Hon. Ayariga said.
He said one way the
Community will cut its over-reliant on external budgetary support is for the
Member States to pay their levy.
Hon. Ayariga said: "Countries are not paying their
levies, if they pay their levies, I believe that it will meet our basic
institutional budget expenditure,” adding that
the Community has a choice not to be heavily dependent on external
funding, " because we have a levy
and the levy is enough to pay for our bills."
"If the countries pay their levies, it will pay for the
bills," Hon. Ayariga emphasized.
It is the view of the AFC that reading out the list of
arrears owed by the Member States is inappropriate despite several calls by
MEPs for them to disclose the information which they deem as an unpalatable
diplomatic exercise.
Hon. Ayariga said the list of community levy arrear holders
should be read out to Members of the Community Parliament, adding that, "The Parliamentarians should play a
critical role in getting their countries to pay their levies but if they don't
have the information, they won't be able to pursue their governments back home.
So, they need to be told that your country hasn't paid so that when they are
home, they would push and monitor their
national budgets to see whether a provision has been made and whether the
various Finance Ministers are reporting
that they are giving the money or they haven't given the money and if they
haven't given the money, they can make it a local national parliament issue to
hold the Finance Ministers' accountable for transferring the monies to
the ECOWAS. But if you don't have information, you can't follow up from the
Commission."
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