It is no secret that donors finance the lion’s share of activities by the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat and the regional organisation’s other organs and institutions, a fact that we are nauseatingly reminded of at every opportunity.

One such occasion was during the Fourth High-Level Dialogue of the EAC Partnership Fund held on March 25 in Dar es Salaam. The dialogue was attended by heads of diplomatic missions accredited to the EAC and members of the Partnership Fund.

Since many people in the region are no doubt impressed by the millions of dollars spent by donor nations on various projects in their own countries, they tend to appreciate this help and fail to see the bigger picture created by donor dependency. And it is something that the current EAC chairman President John Magufuli of Tanzania, would do well to look into more closely.

In fact, many analysts have doubted the value of the aid given to the Third World. It is aid that is designed to maintain the economic status quo: Ensuring that developing countries do not rise up to utilise their full potential, and that they remain satellites of Western economies.

But first, back to the Partnership Fund. Now, this Fund has 11 contributing members made up of the usual list of Western donors: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the European Union and the United Kingdom.

It also gives observer status for development partners who are considering contributing to the fund: Australia, Italy, Switzerland and Turkey. There are still other donors who provide direct project support to the EAC outside the fund, such as the US and the World Bank.

On the positive side, the Partnership Fund has provided significant support in the implementation of the Customs Union and Common Market Protocols, private sector development, finalisation of the one-stop border post regulations, and negotiations for the Monetary Union Protocol.

It has also contributed toward institutional strengthening, including the EAC Institutional Review, as well as efforts to enhance public awareness of the EAC and development of EAC Vision 2050, among many other completed and ongoing projects.

Indeed, the Fund has grown from an initial $645,000 in 2006/07 to over $10 million in 2015/2016. Yet, these figures that get bandied around obscure some important details.

First, how much of the funds provided to the EAC actually accomplish the purposes for which they are intended? It has now become quite clear, through annual reports of accounts and the queries raised by the Committee on Accounts of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), that the filth of corruption in the region has not spared the EAC Secretariat and other regional institutions.

On paper, therefore, a lot is being done using donor funds. On the ground, however, all that could be so much hot air. Essentially, EAC funds are being used to line up the pockets of senior officials. These are officials who spend more time travelling around various capitals than in their offices.

Where loans are involved — since not everything is a grant — the situation is doubly tragic. The people of East Africa are left paying loans whose benefit is neither here nor there. It is all a polished form of corruption.

Related to this situation is the question: Before looking up to donors constantly for funds to finance an ever-increasing list of projects, are available resources being put to the best use?

Take the issue of EALA sittings. There is absolutely no reason why the regional legislature cannot hold its sittings in Arusha and must keep moving from one capital to another. Is that what the legislatures of federated states do elsewhere? This wanton wastage of public resources in a region faced with endemic poverty is inexcusable and unconscionable. Where is Magufuli’s whip?

An agenda that is financed by outsiders cannot truly belong to the people of East Africa. It means that donor powers will always have a powerful say in what happens around the region. Is it any wonder, then, that Western oil companies can try to dictate the course of the pipeline that Uganda’s oil will use, regardless of regional interests or protocols?

When our leaders gleefully extol aid to our countries and institutions, they do the whole region a great disservice. Not only are we all forced to pander to foreign interests, we lose whatever little dignity is left for the region. That cannot be the way to forge integration.

East African News Agency