Joint-Committee of ECOWAS Parliament to peruse mechanisms for reviewing Community Audit Reports
The Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Parliament) will hold a de-localized Committee meeting that will 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”. The meeting holdsfrom 16 May to 20 May 2022, at Lomé, the capital of the Republic of Togo.
Four of the 14 Standing Committees of the Parliament, comprising the following Committees: Public accounts / Administration, Finance and Budget / Macroeconomic policy and Economic research / Trade, Customs and Free movement, will form a Joint-Committee to discharge their committees’ mandate as it relates to the theme in focus.
The Committee on Public Accounts will be the lead committee for the Joint-Committee meeting.
The main objective of the Lomé meeting is to enable members of the Joint Committee examine Articles 9 and 11 of the Parliament’s Supplementary Act on the examination of Audit Reports of Community agencies and institutions, with the aim to better understand and take ownership of their implementation.
This de-localized 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.
It is expected that various presentations by sector experts and resource persons during the meeting, will thus, 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 forty 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 6 seats each. The other countries, namely Benin, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo have 5 seats each.
Get more information on our social media platforms @ecowasparliament or use the following hashtags: #auditreports #2022delocalizedmeeting #jointcommittee #ecowasparliament #Lomé #Togo
