By Asmau Ahmad
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament has scheduled a joint delocalised meeting in Lome, Togo, to discuss implementations of ECOWAS Institutions’ audit reports in a bid to promote accountability and good governance.
The Communications Directorate of the ECOWAS Parliament in a statement on Sunday in Abuja stated that the localised meeting would hold from May 16 to May 20.
The Parliament stated that the meeting would focus on the theme: “The modalities for the practical implementation of Articles 9 and 11 of the Supplementary Act of the Parliament, in respect of the consideration of the Community audit reports.”
According to the Parliament, the main objective of the meeting is to enable members of the Joint Committee to examine Articles 9 and 11 of the Parliament’s Supplementary Act on the examination of Audit Reports of Community agencies and institutions.
It said the aim is to better understand and take ownership of their implementation.
“The meeting holds from 16 May to 20 May 2022, at Lomé, the capital of the Republic of Togo.
It said four of the 14 Standing Committees of the Parliament would form a Joint-Committee to discharge their committees’ mandate as it related to the theme in focus.
It named the committees as: Public accounts/Administration; Finance and Budget/Macroeconomic policy; Economic research/Trade; Customs and Free movement.
“The Committee on Public Accounts will be the lead committee for the Joint-Committee meeting.
“This de-localised meeting also provides an opportunity for the region’s representatives to strengthen and consolidate the collaboration between all Community institutions.
“Particularly, the ECOWAS Parliament and the Office of the Auditor General of ECOWAS Institutions, in the implementation of Articles 9 and 11 of Parliament’s Supplementary Act.
“In accordance with Articles 9 and 11 of the Supplementary Act on the Enhancement of the Powers of the ECOWAS Parliament, the annual Audit Report of ECOWAS institutions and agencies are among the areas in which the Parliament must be consulted, in order to give its opinion.
“The objective of this exercise is to contribute to the promotion of accountability and good governance within community institutions and agencies.”
The parliament said it expected that various presentations by sector experts and resource persons during the meeting would elucidate the importance of parliamentary intervention in the process of control and promotion of transparency in the use of Community resources.
The ECOWAS Parliament is composed of 115 seats. Each of the 15 Member States is guaranteed an allocation of five seats.
The remaining 40 seats are distributed in proportion to the population of each country.
Consequently, Nigeria has 35 seats, Ghana 8, Côte d’Ivoire 7, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal have six seats each.
The other countries, namely Benin, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo have five seats each.
