The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Zephania Ubwani
28 June 2008
Kigali — President Yoweri Museveni has urged the East African Community (EAC) to do away with the current system of a consensus in decision-making in which a single state can veto the decisions of the rest of the members. He cautioned that the system could be counter-productive because it worked easily when the regional bloc had only three members and not likely when EAC had increased its members to five.
Speaking at the 11th EAC heads of state summit here on Thursday,he also warned that if retaining the article could be used unnecessarily to veto the decisions of others. The Ugandan leader said during his tenure of the EAC chairmanship, he noted several flaws in the rule of consensus in decision-making with the regional bloc's structure.
He proposed that if a member of the regional bloc cannot attend a planned meeting, and if a quorum of three is realised, the meeting should go ahead and key decisions be distributed to absentee states. He said that would save the community from wasting time in reaching key decisions. Under the current structure, no conclusive decision can be made without the consensus of all member countries.
He noted that "for some very good reasons" or otherwise,some EAC member countries had often failed to send delegates to crucial meetings of the community, knowing that no key decision could be made in the absence of any member state."My proposal is that if a member cannot attend a planned meeting as has happened in the recent past and the quorum of three is realised, the meeting should go ahead, " he said.
He suggested that instead of calling for another meeting to discuss the matter again, the minutes of such meetings should be availed to absentee officials for their comments and then a final unanimous decision can be taken later. "If a unanimous decision cannot bgve realised even then, we could borrow a leaf from the European Union" he explained, adding that although the UK was not part of EU Monetary Union,other member countries moved ahead with their decisions.
He reiterated that if the present situation of consensus in decision-making in EAC is allowed to continue there was a danger of one member state vetoeing the decision of others. He said it was bad for the integration process. EAC member states are Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda. The last two were admitted to the bloc last year.
President Museveni also expressed his reservations on the role of the five East African ministers and their deputies representing their respective countries in the regional bloc. He said many of them were not fully occupied and suggested that each of them be given a cluster of activities that come under the ambit of EAC to look after, besides his or her current portfolios. These include social services (education, health etc), infrastructure (roads, railways and energy) and external trade.
The Uganda President is a second senior politician in the region to speak on the role of EAC ministers in a week's time. A Tanzanian member of the East African Legislative Assembly said in Arusha last week that ministers responsible for the bloc from the partner states were working less because they were not stationed in Arusha, EAC headquarters.
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