GOSS Ministry of Regional Cooperation needs an overhaul
By Steve Paterno
March 9, 2008 — The current effort of the parliamentary Committee on International Relations and Regional Cooperation of the South Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) to investigate corruption, mismanagement of funds, and incompetence in the Ministry of Regional Cooperation is too little too late, but yet must be commended and encouraged. GOSS Ministry of Regional Cooperation is supposed to be among the most important ministries to bolster international and regional support necessary for building a newly emerging nation of South Sudan . However, from its inception, the ministry has been a colossal failure; it has been instituted and led to function on a downward spiral with its toes up and the head plunging down.
Following the resignation of its first minister, the ministry has been headed by an individual, who could easily be rewarded with the award of the most incompetent ministers, if there is such an award for the ministers of South Sudan Government. This particular minister, whose name is not worthy to be mentioned in this piece, has so far earned a nickname of Dr. Disaster. He is not only bad in avoiding disasters, but also prone to creating them. The minister is so bad that whenever he speaks on matters of serious concerns, one cannot help it but must take him for a complete joke. And when he jokes, you will find that he is the only one laughing at his own jokes. He takes absence of common sense and ignorance as jokes. For example, he misunderstands the inflated prizes of tented hotels in Juba town as part of the “prosperity and progress” endured by poverty stricken South Sudanese citizens. To lure investors into that land, the minister portrayed South Sudan for the survival of the fittest–as a “Wild West” frontier ready to be corrupted, because according to him, corruption is a God given right that “started in heaven.”
Coming down the ladder in the structure of the ministry to the level of the undersecretary, the top bureaucrat, it is even worse. It is now apparent that the undersecretary has either no clue or plan of his supposed duties or role in the ministry. In the words of one South Sudan lawmaker, the undersecretary limited his duties and role to “traveling weekly abroad.” This traveling abroad does not come cheap as it is alleged to be carrying a price tag of six thousand U.S. dollars every week at the expense of the poor South Sudanese citizens. Not only that, these travels also alleged to involve corruption or at least misappropriation of funds. As such, the ministry is broken down from the top to the bottom with incompetent minister known for serious gaffes and incapable undersecretary who has never been there to administer the ministry–missing in action, and who is now implicated in corruption.
Among its legacies, the ministry will leave around its infamous liaison offices it has established in some strategic countries. Those liaison offices would have served South Sudan well had they been instituted properly and led by experienced staff or seconded and retired diplomats. However, most of those offices have become white elephants in term of cost benefit analysis. They are a burden and liability for South Sudan given the way they are staffed, their lack of clear mandate, lack of productivity and the cost they incur in terms of monetary values. Most of the liaison offices are staffed by unqualified and incompetent individuals, some of whom have never worked in their entire lifetime, leave alone whether they even posses the regular work ethics necessary for workmanship. This flop has already reflected negatively in part of the South Sudanese citizens as they are viewed through these unqualified and incompetent individuals who are representing them at these liaison offices in foreign lands. The fact that there are no mandates or guidelines to administer the liaison offices, individuals in those liaison offices operate as they wish, given that some of them employed themselves in those offices and others are handpicked by a relative, a friend or a crony. The expenditures associated with these liaison offices are so staggering that they are costing South Sudan unregulated treasury millions annually. Take for example the case of the liaison office in Washington , D.C. ; it is so costly that it is just a matter of time before the office could institute additional Department of Babysitting and Child Welfare to cater for its ever growing employees. Speaking of big government, this is one of them. To make matters worse, all these costs do not give something in return for South Sudan . This is an investment flashed through the drainage. And who is paying for it, as one may wonder.
Another one of the infamous legacy of this ministry is the capacity building training that it prides itself with; normally taking place in South Africa out of all the places in the world. This scheme of capacity building training in South Africa is nothing but an extension of corruption to involve a foreign country and foreign entities. First of all, the selection of those being taken for such trainings is corrupted as it involves nepotism of a highest kind. The trainings are not only costly but also motivated by corruption among those parties involve in the process. And worse, there are no prove as of yet that those trainings are producing their intended results of capacity building, after all, most of those taken for such trainings have neither background nor potentials in succeeding in these kind of trainings. In short, this is a farce, reinforcing the stereotyping of South Sudanese as stupid people who can only be trained in South Africa for five weeks so that they can run their government.
In conclusion, since the SSLA is taking the case of the GOSS Ministry of Regional Cooperation into task, they must thoroughly investigate the entire ministry and make a complete reform in the ministry, especially in the area of its finance and employment procedures. Otherwise, it will be the members of SSLA who will risk elimination comes election. Since members of SSLA are accountable to the people of South Sudan, the Ministry of Regional Cooperation must also be accountable to the people of South Sudan through the members of SSLA. The SSLA must act now before the damages become too great to be corrected.
Steve Paterno is the author of The Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lohure, A Romain Catholic Priest Turned Rebel. He can be reached at [email protected]