The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) lawmakers have made a fresh call to sanction countries that do not pay their financial contributions to the East African Community (EAC), saying that it negatively affects the life of the Community.

They invoked Article 143 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community which talks about sanctions. According to this article, a Partner State which defaults in meeting its financial and other obligations under this Treaty shall be subject to such action as the Summit may, on the recommendation of the Council, determine.

The issue is one of the matters that were exposed through the analysis report of the Committee on General Purpose on the EAC Annual Report 2019/2020, which was presented to EALA during its session held in Burundi, recently. The Assembly adopted this Committee report.

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The Chairperson of the Committee on General Purpose, Kennedy Mukulia Ayason, said that whereas the Committee commends four countries namely Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania for regularly honouring their financial obligations towards the EAC, it was noted that other partner States have been falling short of this requirement.

The EAC has seven member countries, meaning that three of them -- South Sudan, Burundi, and DR Congo -- were not duly meeting their financial obligations in terms of funding the Community.

"The delay or non-remittance of funds by partner States negatively impacted the implementation of the planned activities and programmes during the period under review, and continues to cripple the operations of the Community,” he said.

Though the Assembly has over the years made several resolutions urging the EAC Council of Ministers to initiate and make recommendations to the Summit of EAC Heads of State to institute sanctions against partner States which have defaulted on their financial obligations -- as per article 143 of the Treaty -- no action has yet been made.

MP Francine Rutazana said that we all know that there are only four partner States that are timely paying remittances to the Community, indicating that "it is not because they don’t have other priorities, but it is because we have committed, and that is an obligation under the Treaty 143 that every Partner State, member of this Community, has to remit timely".

"What is the issue for complying with this provision 143 of the Treaty, regarding the sanctions against the partner States which are not remitting on time?,” Rutazana asked the EAC Council of Ministers.

Meanwhile, Mukulia said that EAC partner States have over the years continued to reduce their annual contributions towards the Community budget, which was not well aligned with its integration agenda.

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"For example, in 2006, the annual contribution per Partner State stood at $8 million, but in 2019/2020, the annual contribution had reduced to $6 million,” Mukulia said, underscoring the establishment of a sustainable EAC funding mechanism.

The Chairperson, the EAC Council of Ministers, Ezéchiel Nibigira, said that in respect of article 143 of the Treaty, the Secretariat was directed, by the Council, to convene a meeting of legal experts "so that they may be able to discuss the policy implications arising from the proposed investigation of breaches of the Treaty, and sanctions to address delayed remittances."

"We are one people, and we have one destiny. There is no need to wait for sanctions, while there are other strategies we can use to help Partner States continue to contribute and make every effort for the smooth running of our Community," he said.