The President of the Pan-African Parliament, H. E. Chief Fortune Charumbira, has appealed to Pan-African Parliament MPs to lead the engagements with their national Foreign Affairs Ministers and Ambassadors to the African Union on the need to provide more resources to the Pan-African Parliament.
To this effect, the Clerk of Parliament is to develop an advocacy pack to be used by all Pan-African Parliament MPs for these engagements.
The President made this appeal when he presented the performance report of the Pan-African Parliament from March-June, 2024 to plenary for discussion and adoption.
The presentation highlighted the downward trend of the Pan-African Parliament budget with an 8-year comparative analysis of the Pan-African Parliament budget from 2017-2024, despite numerous appeals by the leadership of the Pan-African Parliament to the African Union for more resources.
According to the President, the total budget for the PAP for 2024 stands at US$10, 570, 625. This was less than the 2023 budget which was itself inadequate. Of this amount, US$8, 038, 113 is going towards staff costs with only US$2,088, 820 remaining for programmes.
“US$900,000 has been allocated for the two plenary sessions for 2024 yet one plenary session requires at least US$1.3 million. The amount is, therefore, not even enough to host one session.
US$530 000 has been allocated for the two Committee sessions for 2024 and yet one Committee session requires at least US$800 000. The amount is again woefully inadequate”.
H E Chief Charumbira stressed that for the Pan-African Parliament to be able to host the 3rd Ordinary Session, “We had to make use of both the budget for the plenary session and the Committee Sittings. If the AUC does not provide a supplementary budget, we will be unable to convene the August Committee Sittings and the November plenary session”.
He explained that US$241 265 has been utilised towards the Extraordinary Session which had not been budgeted for. A request will, therefore, have to be made for this amount to be reimbursed through a supplementary budget.
H E Chief Fortune Charumbira further appealed to Pan-African Parliament MPs to assist the Bureau by helping to reassert the role of the Pan-African Parliament in the continental governance matrix. “The persistent conflicts within Pan-African Parliament since its establishment have damaged the image of the institution in the eyes of other AU Organs and an already skeptical citizenry. We have a lot of work to do to repair this tainted image. We must be mindful that the Pan-African Parliament as an institution suffers from collateral damage every time there is a conflict within and among its membership. Consequently, every Foreign Minister who spoke at the Executive Council meeting in February 2024 decried the constant instability at the Pan-African Parliament. We all need to work together to repair the checkered image of the Pan-African Parliament and restore public confidence in the elected representatives and the institution”.
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