Lack of details in South Sudan government and laws

By David Char Akau

April 5, 2008 — Agree with me over this alarming way of Running our Affairs, most of the time something is designed to help the Nation run, it turns out to have a lot of Loopholes which in turn throw the country in to an abyss of Corruption, shame and Disarray, when Nations come up with Bills , enact laws or pass a resolution like what South Sudan cabinet does every Friday here in Juba, the rule of smartness and the conscience of the citizens want it to be subjected to remedial process that will guard the act from the unscrupulous individuals that have lost integrity and lack self Guilt. comrades Crying, complaining and procrastination will not help this country at all we all need to develop keenness with all that we do to salvage this country.

Please allow me run through these Gaps/ Loop holes that I’m talking about, I deserve to me corrected if wrong on any one of them, we are all here to Build South Sudan, we do not intend to Hurt any one but we are all aware that those whom we have democratically delegated and are supposed to put these in place once they have failed will always feel attacked but that is not the intension we are attacking the misdeed , some of us will not rest with unjustified Satisfaction that face Defensive tendencies from People Like Bashir Gbendi.

1. The Public service and Human resource Development Ministry: this is one of the live blood ministries of every Nation, why Hon. David Deng Felt Under rated by being offered that Portfolio and Doomed it to an extend of not even staffing ,rehabilitating that ministry, no body knows or that was his own weakness in regards to that ministry, he acted so Unprofessionally toward the development of that mystery and that shocked all the Southerners when He was moved and put On top of Roads and Transport Ministry , you can not move a non performer from one key ministry where he acted with a lot of Contempt toward that appointment to another, when he was appointed Road and transport Minster we deplored that appointment, , there are individuals who corrupted the economy here by Double employment, Ghost Names and Employment of unqualified Relatives all these lies on Deng Athorbei and why the President Cries about it while he tasked some one to Direct it no one knows., to crack down these, it has to be sphere headed by the Public Services, we always hear the minister proclaiming at the top of her voice against these corrupt acts, yes good to talk , remove the Names but what happened next?……the names find themselves reinstated on to the Pay roles because those who put them are still there, what you should do is penalize and prosecutes those who created them any way they are wrong of that offense, put the Law that Bar such practices in Place and keep monitoring………One of my best teachers at Graduate school one time told me that the wicked people are not the foolish you would think, for some one to be wicked as corrupt he is a genius so watch out and put in place correctionery methods that restrained these thugs…..We appreciate the Honorable minister Awut for her effort not only to please the Nation but Ensure Justice in that Public Services she should do more than she is doing to mop the already Over burdened Pay Roles .

2. Few days ago I was moving out of my office here in Juba, I was shocked to see the whole Traffic Police Unit On Roads, at first I was pleased thinking that they were cracking down those who abused our Roads with mechanically Impaired Vehicles, but to the shock of my life, they were looking for those Vehicles and Motor bikes with the number plates NS! Oh my goodness1, Has the Whole south Sudan become answerable to the Central Equatoria State?……..the loophole comes in here, when the idea of changing the Number plate came up, the people of Central Equatoria wanted all the Vehicles in Juba to bear CE numbers and all the revenues go to them…. Logical people and government can not accept this…….Fine I agreed with the South Sudanese who remained firmed and said the Numbering Plates should be made Uniform across all the South State…..look at how it was decided…..People came up with the SSC Numbering which does not take us far, what stopped people from Taking the SS Leaving out the C!….let us go conventional and let us follow what others have taken as the Ideal and conventional way of doing thing Guided by test and proof of what we do so that we do not keep arguing over one thing yet we have a huge set of priorities facing this country, I thought we should finish one thing put monitoring mechanism on to guard it against thugs..

3. Protocols and Addresses to Government Officials! Dear Country men and women! Some Titles are not for Nothings, they were skillfully chosen and worded to suit and distinguish Office Bearers of the Day, they are inheritable by those who inherit the respective offices that go along with them, here in South Sudan Every one would want to be called H.E , presidents, Ministers, Ambassadors, Head of missions, And even the Directors threaten people if not addressed H.E. sad!!!!., the titles go like this…….H.E is for the President, the Ambassadors, Commissioners, Governors they dully deserve this Title if you did not know please do not degrade your self by being the H.E Minister it is awkward for you……the Honorable goes to members of Parliament, the Ministers, the Speakers and the like. Please Directors and Undersecretaries you do not deserve these unless someone surely would want to mock you when or you do not know, all the times you invite other Dignitaries from other respected countries and come shame them by the way you call them and yourself, we wrongly address people even the highly learned people of this county like the Lawyers and other professionals do it….you make us carry away /home with us all the shame for not being in position to address our Dignitaries well, all the Titles are not for Jokes, even the laities , Bishops have their Protocols and they need to be followed as handed down to us by the preceding Generations , if there will be changes then , we all have to consent to it globally not South Sudan….we are members of the world fraternity…..Regional cooperation and the Parliamentary Affairs should be the Custodian of these protocols issues things should not be left as no one cares or knows when we have All the DRs in our Government..

4. Another Loophole. Is the Discretionary powers and Authority, Constitutional positions are supposed to be run constitutionally, their Duties and Powers are limited regulated by the Constitution, this comes in thing likes who signs what Documents and when and what the does that document signify or have on the Nation, that is why Ministers , Vice presidents and the Speakers do not sign Bills in to law even when the president is on his death Bed, he has to do it, Please Corruption is ripe !Undersecretaries and ministers find them selves signing amounts of money they are not mandated to sign……Authority is being abused here a great deal and the People who lack details on their works look at it as simple….we are crying but these are small things simply Details which are lacking , I know of Countries where a minister can not sign a check of more than 1 million Dollars but how Did Theophilus Sign away our 17.5 Billion to that Ghost NOMECA ?

5. Lack of Details has made us suffer this way in the hands of Central, when the Government of South Sudan tells Central Equatoria to Move out of Juba, they (GOSS) Got simply Defeated by Examples given by the State, these Examples includes the coexistence of Kampala District together with the National Capital, the Existence of Washington State together with US Capital, they give endless Example but no body looked at the Details how those States and Districts got created….. those are states and Districts that are created due to the population that has come from all part of the country to stay and work, live and seek Education opportunities in the cities , they are not Tribal states like the central Equatoria would claimed but no one looks at that history of how they came to be created…. And that is why around the Cities you find the Tribal or Ethnic Grouping Around them such as you would find the Baganda Tribe in Wakiso and Mpigi District which are actually in Kampala Suburbs but call Districts of their own, GOSS was not Wrong to tell the state to move but the problem was how was it pursued to conclusion, Places like Mugalla, Rajaf or Tergeka would become the county instead of Juba creating the Juba county for all southerners,.

6. The Lack of Details has give Khartoum an upper hand to cheat the South, there would be no way I would sit on the Petroleum Board and the Figures are manipulated while I do not see, there would be no way I would Be a minister of Energy and mining in Khartoum but I do not verify these information, there would be no way I would be a minister of Finance here at GOSS and I keep signing revenues that are not back by evidence of how they were arrived at ,there would no way I would be a member of the Border commission and I can not keep tract of what was done and what remains to be done the next minutes… but we appoint people who can not pay attentions to details ,people who can not devote energies and time to National Interest……Details are very important they should be taken care of at all times even if we will remain with no Arabs we will need them a great deal……..most of our work is much guided here by guess work and lack keenness , this Frustrating.

7. Lack of Details has made our Gallant SPLA forces deprived of their Salaries that they fought for twenty good years or more…….this is the worse lack of details which to me is tantamount to deliberate act, how can ‘t the SPLA be paid yet the 40% of the Budget goes to this unit ,why call it the SPLA 40% but not the Few individuals 40%…..we are crying here , those who died and have not heard of this scandal may think they are the unfortunate but indeed, they are not different from those who are suffering furthering the noble job of liberation which they have started together to be doomed by lack of Details, can ,t we be sure of how many SPLA troops are there to be paid? yet we have Brigades ,Zones and they have people who are in charged of them, how can the whole Military payment be left to crook cashiers who do not know what it cost to recruit and maintain one soldiers, who do know not what it means to have a nation with sovereignty, cashiers who do not know what will happen next minutes if we do not have the SPLA not knowing that even that money they loot will not be there if the CPA Ceased to be , who do not know that the Politician will not talk minus the SPLA at the right hands. They Buy Trucks at the nose of their masters every day and no one questions where the get money yet their little salaries of few hundred pounds do.

8. Is it not lack of Details that Has made the Citizens pay their little money to the Juba Authority for Electricity and this Electricity is only seen at ‘’Haya or Higher’’ Amarat to please the Ministers who are like every one in the South here, the money was just collected but due to the lack of detailed planning no body knew or took care that the bulbs, Plugs, and other Electrical Supporters can break down and got to be maintained with the money that is collected, it was not meant to enrich those crooks.

9. Is it not the Lack of Details that has made our population suffer from Insecurity that is coming from where we do not know, where is it coming from?, South Sudan is a small territory, if we were people who keep Details we would have cracked down these bandits or at least know who they are, it is pathetic and frustrating to keep suffering from pinches that you do not know whose hand it is that is pinching you…are we‘’ sheep?’’

10. Is it not the lack of Details that has made our population vulnerable to Exploitations, we were pleased to see that the Banks that operate on the Islamic System were evicted on our Soil and we ushered in the conventional banking system, was it that these so called Banks were to enjoy a Free zone with not restricting Rules, look at the way The Kenyan Bank is cheating people, Loans are only to Kenyans as if they own our money that we keep in these Banks …believe it we are here to develop Kenya not South Sudan at all……there is no point of why we should not be given priority in regard to loan because the money is ours and the Bank is here to make profit and make the place to develop , we can not be hacked down like this with two edge swords while we are watching helplessly yet we have mandated Government with her Citizens support.

If it were not because of the media space and the fear I have about my audience, I would have written an Endless lists, this issue of Deliberate lack of details has bothered me for too long, please as we groom this country to go on the right track we need to give the right advice because we are equally the same with those who killed this nation by doing wrong while we keep quiet, by failing to do the right thing as if they did not crave for this power that they fail to live up to.

The author is based in Juba, southern Sudan. He can be reached at
[email protected]