By Julius Jeh, Liberia
IPNEWS: ECOWAS Parliament’s Speaker Memounatou Ibrahima has challenged member states to regularize or increase their funding to the community to enable it to address its many challenges.
Speaker Ibrahima’s comments were contained in her opening remarks at the delocalized meeting of the Joint Committee on Administration, Budget, Finance, Public Accounts, Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
The joint committee is holding under the theme “Role of the ECOWAS Parliament in community budget formulation and monitoring,” enabling members of Parliament to better understand the challenges associated with the community budget and propose recommendations for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the
ECOWAS Parliament in considering and monitoring it.
She argued that funding has to be increased because the subregion is currently facing dangers and difficulties, impeding the execution and realization of community projects and programs.
According to Madam Ibrahima, member states “need to scale up their efforts to finance the community as the current context is marked by global repercussions of recession and inflation, provoked by international tensions and the security threats within the region.”
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee of the ECOWAS Parliament disclosed that the body will intensify its oversight function on the Executive Arm of ECOWAS to ensure that finances are wisely and transparently used in the interest of the people.
Chairman Benjamin Kalu stressed that “this can only be achieved through meaningful engagements with key stakeholders, especially the ECOWAS Commission and the Administration and Finance Committee, which is a statutory committee under the supervision of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers.”
The Vice President of the Ivorian National Assembly Diawara Mamadou highlighted the importance of constituents being informed about the Parliament’s role and actions regarding budgetary actions, expressing his pleasure that the Abidjan meeting is addressing an important subject like the budget.
The Ivorian Minister of Economic Planning and Development also noted that the adoption of the community’s budget was a decisive turning point.
Madam Niali Kaba said “while this budget outlines all the resources and expenditures planned for ECOWAS institutions for the year in a single document, it is primarily the financial translation of our region’s integration and development policy.
For his part, the head of the ECOWAS National Office of Nigeria and Chairman of the Administration and Finance Committee (AFC) of ECOWAS Amb. Olawale Awe underscored the importance of the ECOWAS Parliament, ECOWAS Commission and the AFC synergizing their works in achieving success.
According to Amb. Awe, “it is fundamental that these three entities work with synergy for effective coordination and collaboration to achieve the successful implementation of the community’s policies and programs.”
