The long overdue review of institutions of the East African Community to align them with the expanding mandate of the bloc is costing the community "a lot of money,” the accounts committee of the regional legislature says. 

The delay is also negatively impacting on the implementation of the Common Market Protocol, the second stage of the regional integration process that involves free movement of goods, labour, services and capital.

This is seen as the cornerstone of regional economic integration as it aims at boosting trade and investment and the exercise that started in July 2010 was supposed to enable the EAC build capacity to effectively implement the protocol.

According to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) member Straton Ndikuryayo (Rwanda), the Council in April 2009 directed the Secretariat to undertake a comprehensive study and propose institutional reforms to boost efficiency in executing the expanded mandate.

"It’s now six years and the review exercise is not yet complete,” Ndikuryayo said.

As the exercise drags on, money is being paid to an external consultant working on the exercise and staffing gaps in key positions remain a hindrance to efficiency.

Ndikuryayo said that key positions remains vacant awaiting completion of the review process.

"And because of this, The EAC organs and institutions don’t have required personnel to effectively and efficiently discharge their expanded mandates,” he said.

"In this situation, It will be difficult to follow up the implementation of EAC Common Market protocol in its freedoms and rights; movement of goods, labour, persons, capital, services, rights of residence and of establishment”. 

In November 2011, the Council of Ministers directed the Secretariat to appoint a consultant to conduct a thorough institutional review of the EAC given that the latter’s mandate had evolved since the founding of the Permanent Tripartite Commission in 1993. The exercise was supposed start in January 2013 after the signing of a $116,500 contract between the EAC and a consultancy firm, WYG. Four clear deliverables and timelines were set but they were never met.

Eala Accounts Committee, in its report for the year that ended June 30, 2013, recommended that the EAC Council of Ministers revive and prioritise the review.

While highlighting discomfort about the endless costs of the exercise, the Chairperson of the Accounts Committee, Jeremie Ngendakumana (Burundi), pointed to "unnecessary delays,” that are not the consultant’s fault.

Toothless Secretariat 

The EAC Secretariat says delay is partly due to "pending policy issues” on which partner states must pronounce themselves on before the consultant can proceed.

It was earlier expected that the review would be completed after the consultant received harmonised policy guidance and submitted a final report for consideration by Council in November 2014.

Sunday Times understands that a full-fledged department would be set up at the Secretariat to handle the Common Market Protocol. It is currently handled by the understaffed Planning Department.

The source said: "Ever since 2010, no implementation plan has been drawn for the Common Market Protocol.”Partner states have also not pronounced themselves on a proposal to replace the secretariat with a more powerful commission, a source said. A commission, unlike the current secretariat, would have power to enforce decisions made by partner states. Today, only partner states have ultimate authority over decisive issues—a move that renders the executive organ of the community almost toothless.

The proposed commission would also conduct "enough research in policy analysis and understanding especially regarding policy issues of partner states” as the secretariat lacks the expertise for that.

Sources said that implementation of decisions under a commission would be faster "because of the permanent nature of the commissioners or ministers in place.” Presently, ministers in charge of EAC affairs reside in their respective countries, but with a commission in place, they would permanently reside in Arusha working on a daily basis.

Peter Mutuku Mathuki (Kenya), a member of the EALA Accounts Committee, said the institutional review exercise is basically about assessing the capacity of personnel and resources. The secretariat, he said, is currently operating below capacity—meaning some services won’t be delivered to the expectations of East Africans.

Mathuki attributes the delay to "many factors” including hesitation by partner states due to possible budget implications.

"The departments at the Secretariat are not well-staffed and staff is overstretched with consequences such as less productivity. Take the issue of monitoring – if you don’t have enough staff, it becomes difficult to monitor progress of projects,” he said.