MIDRAND, SOUTH AFRICA – African parliamentarians attending the Fourth Ordinary Session of the Third Legislature of the Pan-African Parliament in South Africa yesterday discussed the continental body’s N$372 million 2014/2015 draft budget.
It is the first time in the Pan-African Parliament’s 10-year existence that a draft budget is presented to parliament. The budget must be submitted to the African Union Commission before the end of this month. Chairman of the Permanent Committee on Monetary and Financial Affairs, Master Goya, presented the draft budget.
This year’s operational budget stands at N$146.4 million while the programme budget is at N$226 million.
The 2015 budget increased by 126.35 percent from the 2014 budget because of the 509.01 percent increase of the programme budget, which is said to be in line with the need to implement the 2014-2017 strategic plan this year. Last year’s programme budget was N$37.1 million.
Goya said this year’s operational budget increased by 14.86 percent from the year 2014, indicating an increase of N$19 million.
The 2015 programme budget plan defines 19 outcomes, 28 outputs and 131 activities and programmes to be implemented during the period at an estimated cost of N$226 million for the continental body to effectively execute its mandate.
In this year’s budget a N$5.8 million allotment has been made available for the establishment of parliamentary structures for representation of women, youth, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.
Goya said N$24.2 million has also been budgeted to ensure enhanced Pan-African Parliament oversight of the African Union to coordinate the promotion of human rights and to respond to humanitarian situations.
The committee recommended that there should be drastic reduction of staff that accompany both bureau members and parliamentarians on Pan-African Parliament missions and that the parliamentary fleet should be gradually renewed to avoid unnecessary and exorbitant maintenance costs.
The committee also recommended that parliament remove from its assets all equipment that has been paid off, notably vehicles and recorded resources related to the budget.