Africa-Press – South-Sudan. By Wek Atak Kacjang
Christian Agency for Peace and Development, a faith-based national organization is capacitating citizens in Bor town of Jonglei State to understand financial accountability and transparency.
The nonviolent campaign offers necessary skills for locals to guard against corruption and raise public awareness to strengthen their capacities to resist and prevent corruption in Jonglei State.
Manyok Samuel Deng, a Field Coordinator for the Organization said the initiative was undertaken to respond to the financial management gap that was affecting the local institutions.
“We had to think of ways of sharing ideas on how the people should use public funds. This is because there have been scenarios people had issues on how to use the money in a systematic manner,” he explained.
Over 90 beneficiaries including state government officials from relevant ministries, youth, and cooperative society of Jonglei participated in the event in the City of Bor. The activity is funded by the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) to strengthen the capacities.
“There are people who work at the joint cooperative societies and they don’t have skills, especially the skills of using money and they end up developing conflict, so given the skills, the conflict will be mitigated because the finances will be used smartly,” said Mary Achol who attended the training in Bor.
David Atem, one of the beneficiaries of the event said they would now know how to account for the money in their various institutions though it has been a challenge.
“This is definitely going to help us to account for the money. We have had issues of no accountability of the public funds and even in our local shared businesses,” he said
“We have seen scenarios where people have run away with people’s money and when they are asked to account, they don’t do it,” Atem added.
According to Atem, they will now adapt to opening a joint account as one of the things they learned during the session to avoid finance-related issues with their mates.
“They (colleagues) will not decide or withdraw money when there is no agreement. The finance systems or group account system has to be followed,” he added.
Isaiah KuchMaluk, the opportunity would help the locals to go about their available financial plans and policies systematically. “It helps in the ongoing plans and the activities, because if you follow the financial system, then what is planned can go as it is planned,” he said.
Mr. Malukadmitted that the financial gap in terms of managing resources won’t longer be issue now in Bor town. “There was really financial gap, because we could see people here adopted the system of using things without accountability even if it is for public,” he said.
“They have learned to try to compare the system especially the government system with the organisations,” Maluk. He appealed to the citizens to teach the public on proper financial management and transparency.
There have been no proper financial accountability and transparency in most of the governmentinstitutions in South Sudan. In January, the Troika countries called on the unity government to ensure transparency in management of revenue, with oil revenue accounting for 90% of the budget
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