John Akoon
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The members of the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Legislative Assembly summoned the area governor, Tong Akeen Ngor, to explain why they have not been paid recess and medical allowances.
The 34 state lawmakers urged the Council of States in a letter to intervene on the matter to address what they termed as a breach of their rights and privileges.
“The governor had failed to provide recess allowance to members of parliament for more than 2 years after serving sessions (1, 2, 3, and 4),” they partly noted.
“As per conduct of business regulations (15), sub-regulation (4), stated when the assembly term is over, the state government is to transport the members and their families to respective areas,” the lawmakers noted, adding that they are demanding recess allowances from governor including medical allowance.
The lawmakers claimed that the governor had undermined the main function of the state assembly which is to make laws by failing to assent to the law made by the honourable members of the Parliament.
“Last year, the members of parliament made efforts to make the following laws: budgets 2022-23, Assembly Emolument 2022-23, Land Prices Adjustment Act 2022-23, budgets 2023-24plus other laws. He failed to assent them into law, and were not implemented as expected,” they noted.
The legislators further asked the assembly to summon Governor Ngor to clarify his next steps over the matter.
“Council of States to summon state Right Hon. Speaker Madam Achol William Amoi and the governor to appear before the August house to clarify this concern issues from members of parliament,” they noted.
They further called on “the chairperson of the legislation and legal committee in the Council of the States and National Ministry of Parliamentary and Legal Affairs to visit the state Assembly.”
The Press Secretary in the Office of the Governor, Emmanuel Dhel, said that Ngor would first meet with legislators in the state assembly to hear from them and brief the press.
According to him, the office has seen the letter but has not found out the names of the members of the parliament, claiming the letter might have been written by groups with different agendas.
“I will first talk with the Governor after he meets with the legislators in the state,” he said.
“And after the meeting, we will brief the media about the position of the governor concerning the letter. Because I have seen the letter but I did not check the names of those lawmakers.”
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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