Yiep Joseph
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. President Salva Kiir tied the perennial challenge of salary delays to the meagre revenue collection and poor management of funds, stressing that the country has enough resources to cater for her needs.
With huge amounts of money believed to be consumed in the implementation of the peace agreement, the organised forces and civil servants have spent more than eight months without salaries.
The government employees, along with their families, have been battling the ongoing economic crisis in the country without pay.
However, during the swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed finance minister, Marial Dongrin, President Kiir admitted that there are several accounts where government money flows.
He lamented that some individuals continue to misuse government resources for their own benefit and interests.
“What is happening now is that people have multiple bank accounts, and the money being collected does not come to the government’s coffers,” Kiir said.
The president, however, failed to disclose the challenges facing the government and that it can’t hold such people accountable for their actions.
Kiir admitted that the country is blessed with many resources that will allow it to pay civil servants and do necessary development in the country. But lamented that a sizeable chunk of the money end up in people’s pockets.
“We actually have money. The money from non-oil revenues is enough to pay people and to do everything. So let us believe that you will deliver. I understand that you have been in the National Revenue Authority, and you know how money is being collected from the people,” Kiir said.
He called on the new minister of finance and planning to focus on the proper collection of non-oil revenue, arguing that his background in working with the taxman would be an added advantage to improving the collection.
Marial vowed that he would urgently determine a realistic and viable action to address the pressing economic issues.
While appearing before parliament, the former docket minister Eng. Awow Daniel once admitted the salary delays but claimed that the reason was due to conflict in Sudan, adding that the money at the treasury could not foot the pending bills.
“South Sudan’s revenue authority has limited capacity; they collect revenues only from Nimule and Juba; there is nothing from the states,” he said.
“If we assume that we collect around 25 or 35 billion SSP in only Nimule and Juba, it is a big challenge for us to have salaries; we should also depend on NRA,” he stressed.
The minister did not specify when and how salaries for civil servants and the army would be released, but he only said there was no money.
House Speaker, Jemma Nunu Kumba, slammed the minister’s excuses, terming them a defence mechanism.
She urged Awow to immediately work towards addressing the matter with the cabinet as soon as possible.
“The issue of salaries needs to be addressed because civil servants are suffering; everything these days is resonating around money,” she urged.
Recently, the minister of finance had promised the payment of one-month salaries to civil servants and the organised forces, but the promise still hangs in balance.
Recently, dozens of residents of Jonglei State’s capital, Bor, took to the streets to demand action against the rising cost of living.
The peaceful protest, a sea of determined faces, was a call to the government to take immediate action to address the economic crisis that has left many struggling to make ends meet.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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