MPs block poverty eradication fund Bill

Parliament has shot down a Bill that sought to establish an exclusive fund to fight poverty in the country.

The MPs said Bill is counterproductive since the Treasury has established the Biashara Fund that merges all existing State-backed funds.

The National Assembly’s Finance Committee said the Poverty Eradication Authority Bill, 2020 duplicates the services of other government agencies.

The committee said the State had established Uwezo Fund, the Women Enterprise Fund, the Youth Enterprise Fund, and Equalisation Fund to combat poverty.

“The proposed Poverty Eradication Fund should be incorporated in existing funds for efficiency and minimisation of duplication of functions within the public sector,” Ms Gladys Wanga, who chairs the committee said in a report.

Several stakeholders, including the Treasury and the State Department for Labour and Social Protection, opposed the enactment of the Bill.

“The committee, having considered the stakeholder’s comments, recommends to the House that the Poverty Eradication Authority Bill, 2020 be deleted and annulled in its entirety,” Ms Wanga said.

The Bill, sponsored by Sirisia MP John Waluke, sought to establish the authority tasked with coordinating national economic empowerment and poverty reduction agenda.

The Poverty Eradication Fund was to be established to help the authority in the fight against poverty in the country.

The Bill proposed that the Authority to be created will be the successor of the Poverty Eradication Commission.

The term of the last commission came to an end on May 26, 2015, as a fulfillment of an earlier recommendation by the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) report in 2013/14 financial year for the poverty eradication commission to be wound up.