BUJUMBURA March 30th (ABP) – The Cabinet met in ordinary session on Tuesday March 27, 2018, under the presidency of the Head of State, Mr. Pierre Nkurunziza.
Through the press release from the General Secretary office of the Government, eight bills were analyzed, six of which were adopted. There was the draft Decree on the modalities for granting mission orders and setting the scale of official mission expenses, which was presented by the secretary and spokesman of the government.
It was found that the implementation of this Decree was problematic because the budget provided for the heading “Mission expenses within the country” had not taken into account some specific services and could not cover the 2018 in the light of the scales set by the said Decree. Customized administrations could easily apply these scales when the services of the central administration could not benefit from them.
The implementation of this Decree had from then on been suspended. After consultation with the services of the Ministry of Finance, new scales were proposed, which will be easily applicable both in the departments of central administration and in customized administrations of the State.
The draft Decree establishing the duties, composition and functioning of the National Civil Aviation Security Committee was presented by the Minister of Public Security in place of the Minister in charge of transport retained by other obligations. It was noted that the establishment of this committee will allow Burundi to comply with the standards and practices recommended by the Chicago Convention and is the subject of a Decree.
The draft regulation implementing the Civil Aviation Code of Burundi concerning remote controlled aircrafts commonly known as “Drones” was presented by the Minister of Public Security in place of the Minister of Transport. The Burundi Civil Aviation Regulations on the remote Controlled Aircraft System is a domestication of the provisions of Annex 6 to the Chicago Convention entitled “Operation of Aircrafts” which is the subject of this draft Order .
The bill on ratification by the Republic of Burundi of the financing agreement number TF 0A4223 in the amount of US $ 33,128,582.85 between the Republic of Burundi and the International Bank for Reconstruction concerning the financing of the Hydroelectric Project of Jiji and Mulembwe signed in Bujumbura on December 19, 2017 was presented by the Minister of Energy and Mines.
The draft Decree reorganizing the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock was presented by the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock. Gaps have been noted in current Ministry missions. Those shortcomings are marked by overlap between different structures of the Ministry, too long chains of command hampering the effectiveness of interventions, and other barriers to meeting the demands of the moment.
The draft ministerial Order concerning the missions, composition and functioning of the approval commissions of the pre-cooperative groupings, was presented by the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock. That law provides for the establishment of commissions that are of three types namely the national commission, the provincial commission and the communal commission.
Two bills were analyzed but were not adopted, this is the draft Decree regulating the management of electrical and electronic equipment waste which was presented by the Minister of the Environment. Waste electrical and electronic equipment is very toxic and causes ecosystem contamination and endanger people.
The bill proposes measures aiming at protecting the environment and human health by preventing and reducing the negative effects associated with the production and management of waste from electronic and electrical equipment. The Cabinet considered that it was necessary to deal with this issue step by step and a team was set up to review the case, starting with the creation of collection centers for this waste.
The Kajaga + Kigaramango site servicing project in Mutimbuzi commune was also presented by the Minister of the Environment. The Cabinet turned it back by recalling the recommendation made to the Ministry previously to suspend the subdivision of new sites and the production of new plots before having emptied the existing disputes related to the irregular allocations of the plots already produced.
In the miscellaneous, the Minister of the Interior spoke about the tripartite Burundi-UNHCR-Tanzania meeting that was under way in Bujumbura to organize the repatriation of all refugees wishing to return from Tanzania. On that occasion the Cabinet asked the Ministry of Public Works to start without delay the compaction works at the section of the Gisuru- Tanzania border road and to have finished within two weeks in order to facilitate the passage of vehicles carrying those refugees.
The Minister of Youth in turn informed the Cabinet of the National Youth Conference, 3rd edition, which will take place from April 3 to 5, 2018.
