A Joint Committee of the ECOWAS Parliament led by Nigeria’s House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu is holding an oversight delocalised meeting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Aug. 12.
The weeklong event, which comprises some of the parliament’s standing committees, namely, Administration, Finance, Budget, Public Accounts, Macroeconomic Policy, and Economic Research, will end on Friday.
According to reports that the theme of the event is “The Role of the ECOWAS Parliament in Community Budget Formulation and Monitoring.”
The Joint Committee was constituted and charged with executing the very important oversight activities on their aforementioned schedules as encapsulated in the outlined community policy.
The main objective of the delocalised committee meeting is for its members to have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the issues in focus with a view to facilitating parliamentary deliberations on budgeting.
It also aims to equip Members to carry out oversight functions over the programmes and activities of ECOWAS as mandated by the Supplementary Act on the Enhancement of the Powers of the Parliament.
It is expected that Members of the Joint Committee will be sensitized by resource persons and stakeholders drawn largely from relevant technical directorates of the ECOWAS Commission on recent developments in the sectors in focus.
Resource persons drawn from relevant organisations, like the organized civil society, will also make presentations to the Joint Committee to equip the parliamentarians with all-round perspectives on the issues.
The Committee on Administration, Finance and Budget is responsible for matters relating to adoption of community budget, examining the draft annual budget of the Parliament; monitoring financial and administrative management in the parliament.
It is also responsible for assessing the effectiveness of various community financing mechanisms, notably the implementation of the protocol relating to the community levy; the coordination of various financial instruments.
