Draft Report of the Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Sub-Committee on Audit and Budgetary Matters

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Distr. RESTRICTED CS/ADM/SC/XXVIII/13 October 2024 Original: ENGLISH

COMMON MARKET FOR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

Twenty - Eighth Meeting of the Sub - Committee on Audit and Budgetary Matters

Chaminuka Chongwe - Zambia 14 - 17 October 2024

DRAFT REPORT OF THE TWENTY EIGHTH MEETING OF THE SUB - COMMITTEE ON AUDIT AND BUDGETARY MATTERS

2024(AO-MZM-NR)-em

CS/ADM/SC/XXVIII/13 Page 2

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1. The Twenty-eighth Meeting of the Sub Committee on Audit and Budgetary Matters (Sub Committee) was held from 14 - 17 October 2024 in Chongwe, Zambia.

PART II: ATTENDANCE, OPENING OF THE MEETING, ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA AND ORGANISATION OF WORK

Attendance

1. The Meeting was attended by the following Members of the Sub Committee: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Other Member States in attendance included Eswatini, Rwanda and Sudan.

1. Also, in attendance were the following COMESA Organs and Institutions: COMESA Secretariat, COMESA Court of Justice, COMESA Competition Commission (CCC), COMESA Federation of Women in Business (COMFWB), Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI) and COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA). The list of participants is at Annex I.

Opening of the Meeting (Agenda item 1a)

1. The Assistant Secretary General, Dr. Dev Haman welcomed the delegates to the 28th Meeting of the Audit and Budget Sub Committee being held to consider Financial, Audit and Budgetary Matters of the Secretariat, its Institutions, and the Court of Justice. He welcomed the new members of the Sub Committee who had undergone a one-day Orientation Program to prepare them for their new role. He thanked the new Members of the Sub Committee for their attendance and urged them to participate actively in the meeting. He informed the Sub Committee that they play an important role as the advisory Sub Committee to the Administrative Committee and therefore add value to the documents that are submitted to the decision-making organs for consideration and approval.

1. He informed the Meeting that COMESA is the only regional organization that has specialized institutions and agencies that collaborate to achieve the COMESA mandate. He further informed the Meeting that the COMESA MTSP has 5 Pillars namely: Market Integration, Physical Integration, Productive Integration, Gender and Social Affairs and Effective Secretariat that guide COMESA and the role of the Sub Committee is to assist the Secretariat to focus its resources on high level impact arrears.

1. He further informed the Meeting that the following hinder optimal regional integration: restriction in free movement of people, limited trade in agriculture produces due to sanitary and Phyto sanitary measures and minimal investment in the COMESA region. The Secretariat as the enabler of regional integration is supporting Member States to address these challenges. Other than the skewed implementation of programmes by Member States, payments of Member States assessed contributions was also a challenge hence an area that the Sub Committee needs to look focus on during its tenure..

Election of the Bureau (Agenda item 1b)