The past couple of weeks saw the EAC Secretariat covered by regional and local media outlets for the wrong reasons. The stories published paint a picture of a secretariat not only seemingly internally divided or mismanaged but also uncertain of its direction.

The EastAfrican published a story on August 27 informing us that six employees of the Community had taken the Secretariat to court over “unlawful” termination of their contracts.

The same story also penned alleged abuse of tendering procedures with a letter from Dr Enos Bakuku, the Deputy Secretary-General in charge of Procurement and Infrastructure advising his boss, Liberat Mfumukeko, the Secretary-General (SG) to stick to procurement rules in relation to an awarded tender still in dispute.

And on September 5, an article in a Rwandan newspaper disputed the termination of staff contracts due to lack of funds and claimed the deed would lead to the closure of the peace and security department.

Further, the article quotes ambassador Erastus Mwencha, the AU deputy chairperson confirming, in a letter to the EAC SG that funds for the employees would be paid. Thus, while the SG told affected employees that termination of their contracts was due to lack of funds, funders only pointed to delayed disbursement.

Considering that organisations’ best ambassadors are its employees, one wonders how the secretariat will put its act together without internal cohesion.

Information from Arusha indicates that after the EAC Council of Ministers met last week, it expressed concern with the violation of the procedures in the termination of contracts for employees; directed the Secretariat to cease the practice and asked to find alternative funding for the peace and security department.

Remember, Mr Mfumukeko, the SG has only been in office for five months having been appointed in March 2016 and assuming reins in April.

The Burundi opposition has already requested Benjamin Mkapa, the facilitator of negotiations to move the talks away from the EAC Secretariat, citing bias from the SG.
Never before has the EAC SG faced such negative exposure or rebuke from the Council of Ministers in such a short time.

Mr Mfumukeko, at least according to The EastAfrican, said the Community is facing liquidity challenges and his leadership is involved in cost-cutting initiatives with “the overall direction” of putting “money where we can respond to the basic needs of the people.”

Some of his critics however claim incompetence or influence peddling shown by alleged misunderstanding of rules and regulations on contract termination and floating procurement procedures.

Others perceive the termination of contracts of only employees from the peace and security department as part of the SG’s agenda to eliminate individuals Bujumbura suspects to be anti-President Nkurunziza’s third term.

The peace and security department is also in charge of overseeing peace initiatives in the EAC, including ongoing peace talks in Burundi. In fact, the employees whose contracts were terminated are also the same ones that have been since violence erupted in Burundi, facilitating engagements in and documenting developments.

In broader terms then, the court cases; the liquidity challenges; alleged flaunting of procurement procedures and the alleged bias on the part of the SG points to the existence of two bigger challenges facing the Community today.

The first is what we would call “short-termism” in policy imagination and the second which is a creation of the treaty that gave birth to the Community is the politicisation of the Secretariat through political appointees; including the position of SG.

The larger problem is that such decisions point to short term policy-making and implementation at Secretariat that can neither solve the financial challenge nor ensure that, in future, only neutral individuals are hired to the Secretariat.

The best way to solve the secretariat’s challenges is to look for long term alternative sources of funding and desisting from taking short-term decisions in favour of long term policies.

One way to do this would also be to ensure that Secretariat staff, right from the SG down are employed on merit rather than political considerations. This means making the secretariat a technocratic and meritorious institution that serves the community rather than its leaders.

Otherwise, to expect the SG not to serve the ends of the man whose word gave him the job is to expect a behavior that has never been and, probably will never be engaged in by men.

Christopher Kayumba, PhD. Senior Lecturer, School of Journalism and Communication, UR; Lead consultant, MGC Consult International Ltd. E-mail: [email protected]; twitter account: @Ckayumba