Kampala:  A Pan African Parliament committee set up to probe the operations of the continental body has reported serious and wide ranging administrative and financial irregularities affecting the body's realisation of its mandate. The Committee on Administration and Financial Evaluation (CAFE) was established in 2009 when the Pan African Parliament (PAP) was experiencing severe flaws in the financial and administrative processes, and was tasked with probing and suggesting solutions to the institutional, administrative and financial shortcomings.

The committee probed the institutional and political domain and the financial and administrative structures of the Pan African Parliament. In its report presented to PAP by the chairperson of the committee, Hon Fabakary Tombong Jatta (Gambia), last month (May 24, 2012), the committee noted financial irregularities, flaws in the procurement process and lack of adherence to African Union rules and international financial management practices.

In a rather unwelcome move, the committee noted a poor relationship between the Pan African Parliament and its core donors as well as organs of the African Union. In addition, the committee discovered irregularities in the way staff at the Parliament were recruited and promoted. An international auditing firm, Ernst and Young, discovered weaknesses in the procurement process, reporting the lack of a clear-cut separation of roles in the procurement process in addition to the lack of qualified staff.

In a rather surprising move, in 2010 the UK Department for International Development (DFID), severed relations with the Pan African Parliament, withdrawing its funding and lobbying, with some success, other donors to follow suit. The decision followed the release of a report by an ad hoc committee the previous year citing "serious financial irregularities in the administrative procedures of PAP."

As a result, the European Union, another big donor of the institution, suspended its relations with the PAP pending an audit report commissioned that year. Proposals for a review of PAP's staff structure have not been approved by the AU, which in turn recommended that PAP retrench its entire staff and carry out new recruitments.

"In December, the PAP presented its structure to the AU but the structure was not adopted due to differences between PAP and AU on the nature of the structure," said the chairperson, adding, "The AU declined to give PAP the staff complement that PAP required and wanted PAP to downgrade some positions."

In addition, the committee has cited an uneven distribution of staff where Southern Africa (with 26) has about half of the entire staff in PAP (58), with North Africa having only 3, Central 7, Western 12 and Eastern 10. The committee recommended that this be rectified.

Similarly, three sacked staff  - the Clerk, Director of the Bureau and Deputy Clerk-Legislative Business -  have forwarded their cases to the AU tribunal for arbitration.

The committee also asked PAP to adhere to the AU recruitment process and respect contractual obligations entered into with staff. Although not approved, members had suggested that a special committee be instituted to further investigate the aspect of financial irregularities which put the institution in bad light. Members were riled by the AU's proposals about staff sacking and financial inefficiencies.

Isaac Stephen (Botswana) said the AU's proposal to lay off all staff was meant to incapacitate PAP from carrying out its work. He said that since all the staff were on contract, the AU should have suggested that their contracts not be renewed.

Malam Issa (Niger) said, "The quality of PAP management needs to be considered. The AU and our partners are not confident in the quality of our managers. We need to address financial management and return confidence in our partners."

Members also said that an immediate solution needs to be found so as to reduce dependency on donors. "When donors stop their funding, everything (at PAP) will stop; we need to solve this now," said Suad Fateh (Sudan).

Cecilia Ogwal (Uganda), a member of CAFÉ, expressed concern about the absence of a proper working arrangement between the AU and PAP, which is necessary for effective operations. She said the African Union Commission had ignored the requirement to submit its budget to PAP for approval.

She said, "It has never happened. This is insubordination and should be addressed. How can we play our oversight role when the AU is ignoring its role?"

The outgoing President of PAP, Moussa Idriss Ndele, said "We have not been able to find solutions to all the problems which undermine our Parliament. The outgoing bureau focused on the political and institutional areas to the detriment of administrative activities which remain one of the pillars to be rigorously pursued with authority."

• The author is Senior Information Officer, Parliament of Uganda.