ECOWAS Commended for Move Toward Inclusiveness, Equity, Transparency

29 June 2011
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

The President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has commended the ECOWAS Commission for moving toward more inclusiveness, effectiveness, equity and accountability.

"An ECOWAS that dearly holds transparent and equitable criteria for allocating statutory posts in our institutions is definitely on firmer grounds for attaining the objectives for which the organization was founded," Dr Koroma told the just-concluded mini-summit of a Presidential Committee on the allocation of statutory positions within the ECOWAS Commission and Community Institutions.

The ad-hoc Committee chaired by Dr. Koroma was established by the 39th Ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government held in Abuja in March 2011 and mandated to review the modalities for the allocation of statutory positions in all ECOWAS institutions to Member States of the Community. It was also charged with proposing a rotational schedule to guide the selection of the Chairperson of the Authority.

Other members of the five-member Presidential Committee that attended the meeting held 21 June 2011 at the Lungi Airport, included President Malam Bacaii Sanha of Guinea Bissau, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia and President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe of Togo. Mali was represented by Dr.

Badara Aliou Macalou, its Minister for African Integration and Malians abroad.

The Committee's work will assist the Community to establish a rotational system of allocation of positions based on an alphabetical order of States and on the principles of transparency, equity and predictability.

This is part of the many changes within the framework of the restructuring of ECOWAS Institutions and Agencies following the transformation of the Executive Secretariat of ECOWAS into the ECOWAS Commission.

In discharging its mandate, the Ad-hoc Committee was guided by the relevant policies and principles of the Community as well as provisions of existing Laws within the Community in addition to reports of the Ad-hoc Ministerial Committees that had been set up to consider the same issues.

The Presidential Committee will submit its proposals to the next session of the Authority of Heads and State and Government for final approval and adoption.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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