Foreign Ministers to Set Tempo for AU Reform

(PANA)--African foreign ministers are due to meet Friday to make decisions on measures to strengthen the African Union (AU) institutions, based on the recommendations of its 53 permanent envoys, a senior diplomat said Thursday.

The envoys serving in the policy organ of the organisation, known as the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC), have been meeting here over the last three days to discuss a string of measures to strengthen the operating units of the pan- African body.

Tanzanian Ambassador Mohamed Maundi, the PRC Chairman, said the measures include short-term and long-term administrative policies, which if implemented, would make the AU more efficient and its operations much easier.

"The aspect of reforms is very crucial," Maundi told journalists. "Africa has been transforming itself. We are engaged in institutional building at the secretariat. These institutions should be able to function and deliver."

African leaders met at in Arusha, Tanzania’s northern city, to discuss an outline of measures prescribed by a high-level panel of experts on measures to bolster the working mechanisms of the AU, including its organs like permanent’s representatives body.

The suggestions contained in a document prepared after months of research on the operating mechanism of the AU institutions - the AU audit - sought to breath fresh life into several organs of the continental body, and remove doubts over its efficiency.

The African foreign ministers have previously met to discuss the Audit, which led to a number of wide-ranging decisions on some of the resolutions contained in the Audit report.

The PRC, holding its third straight day of discussions, following up on its five days of work from the AU seat of power in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, examined the decisions already taken on the Audit and forwarded the more political ones to the ministers.

Maundi said the Executive Council, which constitutes the AU’s foreign ministers, met at an extra-ordinary Summit in Arusha, and made decisions on the audit report.

"The meeting accepted 19 recommendations on the Audit reported, rejected 22 recommendations and 52 of them were referred to the AU Commission for administrative reasons. This is because some of them were of administrative nature and the recommendations were on resource mobilisation," Maundi told a news conference at an Egyptian resort.

The measures aimed at strengthening the organisation had focused on the decision-making process and also explored the nature of holding its meetings. The recommendations had explored ways of making the political leadership of the Union longer, so the African leaders chairing the political wing, could serve longer.

The recommendations are among those that have been rejected and the Executive Council is expected to meet Friday to make its recommendations based on the report of the PRC, which was due to finalise its work Thursday evening.

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