South Sudan SSDF urges Salva Kiir to unmask $60 culprits

Jan, 27, 2007 — The 2nd anniversary of the CPA unfolded serious dramas that took the Sudanese masses by storm. They did not expect such an important event to end up in such a disastrous manner. The serious confrontation between the two generals, Field Marshal Omer Al Bashir (President of the Republic of Sudan) and Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit (First Vice-President of the Republic of the Sudan and President of the GoSS), has exposed for the first time to the people of Sudan what used to be regarded as closed doors discussions of the presidency within the palace, leaving nothing confidential for the presidency to keep away from the public. With such a showdown, can the people say that the palace is no longer in control of the affairs of the state and therefore the time has come for the Sudanese people to take over the reign of power? Was that showdown between the two leaders a way for enlisting the support from their constituencies? If so, who emerged victorious? Is it the SPLM or the NCP? We leave that for the Sudanese public to make their verdict.

Coming back to the question of sixty million dollars scandal, which is the main subject of this press release, the question the ordinary Sudanese can pose is: Why did it take that long for the public to know that the Government of National Unity (GoNU) released such amount of money for the purpose which President Bashir alleged to be the case, i.e., the repatriation of the SPLM’s members from Diaspora and the setting up of institutions in the South? Could we say that the revelation might have come as the result of frustration and a rebuttal from President Bashir to serious indictments brought against the NCP, i.e., lack of implementation of Abyei Boundary Commission Report, delimitation of border between the North and South, the LRA and the controversy surrounding the share of oil revenue? Could it be a conspiracy from the NCP or the so-called Awlad el balad to discredit the leadership of the GoSS and the South in general, thereby justifying their age-old claim since independence of Sudan that the South is incapable to rule itself—that the two civil wars the South fought were all in vain?

Whichever way the people would like to look at the second anniversary of the CPA, we feel that the Southern public has been robed of a wonderful opportunity, at least to know what has been achieved since the formation of the GoSS. At last, we are not surprised why it turned out to be so because we are fully aware that the SPLM still suffers from lack of accountability and transparency. However, the great relieve is that the scandal has exonerated the two leaders of the SPLM, i.e., former SPLM’s Chairman, Dr. Garang and the current chairman of the SPLM, Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir. As the result, we would expect Lt. Gen. Kiir Mayardit to track down culprits who handled sixty million dollars and kept the funds away from public treasury. We hope, with the revelation given by the Minister of Information of the GoSS, Dr. Samson Kwaje, and the Secretary General of the SPLM and adviser to the GoSS’s president, Mr. Pagan Amum, that the thieves who slipped through the net of Dr. John Garang and were not caught would now be brought to justice and be nailed in their final coffins—therefore reducing the number of thieves Dr. Garang talked about from 4000 to 3999 or less.

In examining the two statements made by Dr. Kwaje and Mr. Pagan Amum, it now appears that there is a tug of war between the handling of funds by the Finance Minister, Arthur Akuen, on one hand and the SPLM leadership on the other. However, the controversial comments made by both Dr. Kwaje, as the chair of investigation committee, and Mr. Amum, the Secretary General of the SPLM, tend to prejudice the process of investigation before it even takes off. Furthermore, the serious indictments made by Pagan Amum against Arthur Akuen—given the fact that Dr. Kwaje previously alleged that the money was properly used—may complicate the whole issue surrounding the scandal, thereby making it extremely difficult to establish a credible line of investigation that may come up with findings that will satisfy the general public. The saga of sixty million dollars scandal has dented the credibility of the GoSS and the SPLM as the ruling party since the arguments presented by Dr Samson Kwaje rendered the whole episode a mess of inexplicable nonsense.

However, to make sense out of nonsense, we still can say that the allegations made by Mr. Pagan Amum tend to incriminate strongly Mr. Arthur Akuen, the Finance Minister of both the GoSS and the SPLM—therefore questioning the credibility of any attempt to justify how these funds were spent under his control since nobody knows which bank he deposited the money in. Was he hording the money? According to Pagan Amum, in his interview with Al Sahafa newspaper, he alleged that it was after along struggle with Mr. Arthur Akuen that the latter was able to release $18m dollars out of $60m to SPLM’s bank account. Up to now, $42m remained unaccounted for and Mr. Akuen Chol should tell the GoSS and the GoNU where he is keeping the money; otherwise, suspicion that Mr. Akuen Chol has diverted the money to Gogrial-Aweil enterprises will not be far from the truth.

The other issue that raises serious legal question relates to the status of $60m dollars. Did the central government release the money in 2005 to the SPLM as the liberation movement or to the Government of the South as it was recognized after the signing of the agreement after Jan, 9th, 2005? If the $60m dollars was released to the SPLM as the primary beneficiary rather than the South as Pagan Amum claims, then he might be right to claim the money for the SPLM. But if it were to be for the government of the South as president Bashir stated, then Arthur Akuen was right to withhold the money although he horded the funds for his private use which is now causing him a migraine because he cannot produce authentic receipts that could be vouched by a credible accounting firm.

Contrary to claims made by Pagan Amum, common sense has it that the funds the central government released in 2005 were for the GoSS, not SPLM as a liberation movement because a sovereign state cannot issue such amount of money to a liberation movement that was regarded as an enemy of the state, unless the Secretary General of the SPLM is still suffering from the hangover of the SPLM/A when it was a liberation movement before it was recognized under the CPA as a political party. If that is the case, then he might be excused for his lapse of memory because, while he is sitting comfortably in Juba, his memories are still in Rumbek, which used to be the head-quarter of SPLM/A as a liberation movement before the conclusion of the CPA.

Mr. Pagan Amum should understand that the $60m dollars given to Dr. Garang was a share from the oil revenue earmarked for the GoSS’s budget of 2005, not a donation to SPLM as Hon. Kwaje correctly assumed. Mr. Pagan should also be made aware of the legal and constitutional implications to his claims of such funds, as it may raise serious issues from other political parties that are partners of the GoSS. Therefore, the $18m which Arthur Akuen has already released to SPLM’s account should be returned to the public treasury. Pagan should know that the debts the SPLM had incurred in establishing their political offices—both in the North and the South—is the responsibility of the party, not the GoSS. While they were setting up their own offices, other parties too were doing the same, but were depending on their own resources and donations from their friends or other political allies. Unless Pagan Amum does not believe in God or wants to justify the SPLM’s culture of corruption and looting spree—where it is often difficult to differentiate between what is public and what is private—otherwise, his claim of such amount for his party would tantamount to broad daylight robbery of public funds and abuse of power by a ruling party.

What the Secretary General of the SPLM should understand is to wake up from rip van winkle and nocturnal sleep so as to be able to see clearly what is happening in the real world, i.e., making a distinction between a liberation movement and a legitimate government. In this regard, we would have expected the Secretary General to present the case of sixty million before the president of the government of the South so as to make him aware why the funds are being kept away from public treasury, instead of demanding the money to be transferred to SPLM’s account—given the fact that there are seven parties that formed the GoSS. Had he done that, he would have saved the people of the South and in particular the interim president of the GoSS, the embarrassment and humiliation which he suffered during the celebration of the 2nd Anniversary of the CPA, almost making him a lame duck president.

Now that the scandal of the sixty million dollars has become a public knowledge, would it not be appropriate for those SPLM’s supporters, members and leadership to withdraw their statements of condemnation against Bona Malwal whom they regarded as the source of rumor in 2005? When Bona Malwal revealed that the SPLM was given $60m by the central government in August, 2005, he was accused of negative propaganda against the SPLM as well as vendetta against late Dr. Garang—sparing him no room to breath. President Kiir, during his first visit to U.S. after taking oath as the first Vice-president, denied the allegation raised by Bona in his meeting with SPLM members in Washington. The same denial was also issued by the SPLM’s prominent member in London, who even went further to say that if Bona Malwal continued to smear the former chairman of the SPLM, the party would consider taking legal actions against him. Now that Bona Malwal has been proven right or exonerated, could the SPLM leadership take the courage to send a letter of apology to him since he is an adviser to President Bashir who might have been informed earlier about the money?

Given his sworn testimony to fight corruption to the last, and breaking away with the protocol of cabinet responsibility, i.e., going as far as saying that each individual Minster should clear himself whenever accused of any malpractices in his ministry, will president Kiir relieve the ministers accused of malpractices, corruption, as well as having skeletons in their cupboards, from their duties, so as to go to courts to clear their names—in order to give the government a clean bill of health? If he does that, then, the Southern public will indeed be encouraged and perhaps will begin to take him seriously, as he has now taken upon himself to confront so-called Awlad el balad, who are used to discrediting the Southern leadership since the dawn of independence.

For Contact

Gordon Buoy,
Chairman of South Sudan Democratic Forum-Canada
Ottawa.

ON
Tel. (613)260-9307
Email: [email protected]