South Sudan denies targeting individuals over fight against corruption
May 22, 2013 (JUBA) - South Sudan said on Wednesday it does not target specific individuals in the fight against corruption, dispelling criticism that the government was targeting some people from specific ethnic groups for their alleged involvement in a 2008 scandal in which 3.6 million South Sudanese pounds went missing. The country’s minister of Justice, John Luk Jok, whose ministry had set up a team to conduct an investigation into the "Dura saga," accused some politicians of politicising the process to “kill the justice”. “I want to state clearly that the government is not targeting individuals as it is being alleged. What the ministry is doing is to ensure justice is applied fairly, uphold government policy on transparency and accountability. It is the government policy to fight corruption and I want to state here very categorically that we do not target individuals. All we are doing is that the system allows itself to go out to whoever is wanting and will be answerable,” Juk clarified in an exclusive interview with Sudan Tribune Wednesday. Minister Juk said the ministry had formed a highly skilled committee to conduct a thorough investigation, specifically identifying those who received funds without delivering grains. The investigation team is headed by South Sudan’s Prosecutor General, Filberto Mayuot Mareng. Other members were drawn from the justice and interior ministries. He explained that the government was to buy the grain, locally known as Dura with the intention to sell it to the poor at cheaper prices and the money paid to the ministry of finance. However, many individuals secured the contracts with fake documents, claiming to be companies and ended up getting away with hundreds of millions of dollars without any grain delivered to the states. In an attempt to ensure justice is done the parliamentary committee on public accounts last year summoned the former ministers, Michael Makuei Lueth, Kuol Athian and David Deng Athorbei over the issue. Athian, who was the minister of finance at the time, defended himself, saying the companies he contracted were legally registered by the former ministry of legal affairs and constitutional development under Michael Makuei Lueth. The former minster said he paid the companies who brought certificates of acknowledgement from the states that they had actually delivered the Dura to the states in accordance with the contracts signed, a revelation contrary to what the people on the ground said. Officials in the states said the Dura never reached the states or the intended destinations. In his attempt to distance the government from misappropriating the public funds, justice minister said “some scandalous people used the opportunity to make what we can call now, or what has been alleged now, to be false claims or fraudulent claims on the government which involved huge sums of money". The World Bank auditors invited by South Sudan to review the case in February found that 290 companies were paid without ever having signed contracts and another 151 were vastly overpaid. PUBLIC REACTIONS Sabit Alfred a resident of Juba from Central Equatoria State said he understands why justice is taking so long because it is complicated by the involvement of senior government officials. “This issue is very complicated. This is why it took such a long time. It is complicated to the extent I feel judiciary cannot do anything about it because our people think that this judiciary is not independent. I also don’t think about the president can do anything because it is really very complicated issue. It is not clear. The state governments are the ones to clear this issue not anyone”, Alfred explained. Mawien Bol, a resident of Juba from Northern Bahr el Ghazal State described the whole story “as a big mess, linking it to a story about a crane and a frog. “This Dura saga is a big mess. It is exactly like a story crane and frog story if you ever read it. The crane and frog is very funny and I think this is what is happening. The crane wants to eat the frog but the frog was already on its neck. The crane struggles to swallow a frog but it could not because the frog had firmly grabbed it by the neck and refused to leave making swallowing impossible. "This is exactly what happened. The government wants to prosecute some contractors but they seem to be forgetting that it is the same government whose members were part of the deal through either their friends or relatives. So it is always difficult to try such a case. I think it should just be left and take it as one of the lesson learned”, he said Deng Garang, a student at Juba University, said he does not understand why it is taking the government such a long time to end this Dura story. "This story keeps coming up and nothing is done about it. It seems the government is facing some internal difficulties. May be there are senior and powerful government officials”, he said. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14orh%2Ba-qZwQsqpGQdYsj-FeZvuc7F5wGy0B0Po4fzsWsEg%40mail.gmail.com?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
