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Harmonised regional air fares to boost tourism

Mr Musa Sirma

THE East African Community (EAC) Chairperson of the Council of Ministers, Mr Musa Sirma has urged partner states civil aviation authorities to harmonize air travel fares.

He said that domestication of regional travel fares by harmonizing them would make it easy to boost tourism by marketing the region as a single tourist destination."Introduction of one single tourist visa is fundamental. And this would further be enhanced by the domestication of regional travel by harmonizing air fares in order to fully market the region as a single tourist destination," he said.

He was addressing members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in Nairobi, Kenya after the assembly received two committee reports of accounts for the Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources (ATNR) committee.The report on committee of accounts was presented by Ms Jacqueline Muhongayire, the committee chairperson.

EALA Senior Public Relatios Officer, Bobi Odiko said that the report followed a capacity building workshop recently held in Kigali, Rwanda. The objectives of the workshop were to understand the audit commission report, acquire knowledge on audit processes and methodology aiming at carrying out a comprehensive review of the EAC audited accounts and to appreciate the role of the committee on accounts in the accountability process.

The committee recommended that the EAC's scope of audit be expanded to include management audit, environmental audit and value for money audit. It further wants the audit commission to expedite the protocol on making operational Article 134 of the EAC Treaty with regards to the establishment, role and independence of the audit commission.

The committee also noted that the interactions between the audit commission, the EAC internal audit unit and the EAC monitoring and evaluation units were required to maintain regular and enhanced working relationships.EALA member Mr Abdullah Mwinyi called for more funding to enable the committee to execute its mandate more effectively.