News:
March 26, 2021
In the light of some ECOWAS member states not paying their Community Levy which is hampering implementation of projects and activities of the sub-regional body, a member of Ghana’s delegation to the Community Parliament Samson Ahi is calling for a meeting with the various Finance Ministers to trace how much funds has been collected.
According to him there are challenges with the current system of collection of the Community Levy, hence the need for review, as some member states collect the levy, keep it though out the year without paying it to the ECOWAS Commission.
Again, some States collect and then transfer half or sometimes a quarter of what they have collected to the Commission, which means that there is something wrong with the mode of the collection as it stands now.
He made this point at a three days seminar held in Freetown, Sierra Leone where the ECOWAS Parliament is meeting, aimed at involving Community lawmakers in monitoring the application of the Protocol relating to the Community Levy (CL) in order to guarantee adequate recovery of the product which required for the financing of the activities for the benefit of the Community.
“I suggest that we should have a desk at the various collection points. There should be a mechanism where collections can be placed into a direct account without necessarily going through the Members States banks before they transfer it to the Commission”.
Mr. Ahi further recommends that, for the Parliament to be able to help in supporting the Commission, they should ensure one hundred percent of collection at every point, and strengthen the Committee for Finance and at the moment, they could have a Committee for the budget to handle oversight of our various countries at collection points and quarterly.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com