South Sudan parliament calls for action against corruption ArticleComments (7). Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 16, 2012 (JUBA) - South Sudan parliament on Monday postponed deliberations on corruption, which took place in 2005 and 2006, apparently due to lack of copies of the auditor’s report covering those years. South Sudan’s National Assembly on 11 January held a heated debate on how to address corruption after the Public Accounts Committee presented its work on the Auditor’s report of the financial years 2005 and 2006 finding that over $1 billion was unaccounted for. Former rebels - the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) - have governed South Sudan since a 2005 peace deal, which resulted in the region’s secession from North Sudan in July 2011. Allegations of graft have dogged the South Sudanese government since its inception with billions of dollars going missing. The report presented by Kom Kom Geng, chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee led some MPs to call for action to be taken against officials found to have been involved in corruption. In over six years of self-governance South Sudan has failed to prosecute a single person for corruption despite it being officially acknowledged as one of the major problems facing the severely underdeveloped nation. Speaking at the presentation of the report to the house for debate, the speaker of the national assembly, James Wani Igga, urged lawmaker to commence deliberations on the report submitted by the Committee. The three hours debate saw the house divided between MPs who backed ministers criticising the report and others who wanted more accountability for how money was spent in the first two years of the interim period of South Sudan’s peace deal with North Sudan. The debate saw members of the house accusing one another over accountability issues. Some MPs recommended that "looters" of public funds should face life imprisonment and confiscation of property, if they are found guilty of squandering public resources. Those calling for the harsh punishment for graft included the SPLM’s Thomas Wani Kundu, the representative for Lainya County in Central Equatoria State. Kundu and other MPs also accused Justice Minister, John Luk Jok, of interfering with the debate and obstructing the members from free deliberations on the auditor’s report. Minister Luk argued against prosecuting any person found guilty of squandering the public resources on the grounds that, the Auditor’s report was not comprehensive. “Let us not be emotional but read the report and base our debates on facts from the reports. The Auditor’s report is not comprehensive; it should have covered all the government institutions [including the presidency and judiciary] if justice is to prevail for all.” However, Wani Igga, a speaker of the house, said that the Ministry of Justice would have to act on resolutions passed by the parliament. Commenting on the audit report during deliberations, Akol Paul Kordit, a chairperson of the SPLM youth wing, suggested the report be passed to the South Sudan Anti Corruption Commission (SSACC). The SSACC was recently granted long-promised powers to prosecute corrupt individuals but has so far been a toothless and ineffective institution. South Sudan has said it has a "zero tolerance" to corruption but this rhetoric has not been backed up with action. Kordit said that he no longer used the phrase "zero tolerance" at public events because he felt "ashamed" at the SPLM led government’s record. “We really have to make an immediate u-turn on the issue of corruption" he said. The senior member of the ruling party, who occupies a special seat in the house, demanded that the names of corrupt officials be published. On 1 November 2011, the South Sudan Auditor General, Stephen Wondu, announced that $1.3 billion was unaccounted for in the 2005 and 2006 budgets in his report to the South Sudanese parliament. The reports were based on six areas of public funds; oil revenues, payroll expenditure, capital expenditure, bank and cash balances. Some MPs were so shocked they were brought to tears by the revelations. Corruption is one of the reasons rebel groups in South Sudan give for their insurgencies against the SPLM government in Juba. South Sudan is one of the poorest regions in the world with low life expectancy, literacy rates and cripplingly poor infrastructure and public services after almost constant conflict since Sudan’s independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956. Under colonial rule and while governed by Khartoum the region has suffered from a lack of investment as well as political and economic marginalisation. Two million people are estimated to have died in the civil war that led to South Sudan’s independence. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
