CPA next celebrations in Western Equatoria

What Corruption lessons learned from Upper Nile State?

By Urbano Tipo

September 17, 2009 — It was good news that CPA celebration in 2010 will be conducted in Western Equatoria State (WES). This is an opportunity that knocks only once for A state. I believe people in WES are looking forward for such wonderful event. People in WES are always keen and composed when coming to celebrations of such kind. They enjoy New Year celebrations in colorful manner. In addition, WES has excellent political leadership and its citizens are law abiding. WES has honest and intelligent people who know how to reason and govern themselves wisely and Especially the current governor. One is certain, given the freedom to decide on what to do for the celebration of CPA; they will come out to be successful occasion.
CPA celebration comes with a component of huge cash. If WES can prioritize their programs well, this amount can be enough to bring land mark development in the state.

In order for WES to benefit from this cash they have to explore lessons learned from CPA celebration in Upper Nile State in January 9, 2009. The citizens from WES who attended the celebrations may know what happened.

When Upper Nile State knew that it was going to host CPA celebration in the State, Malakal was turned overnight into a Mad-House. Everything became chaotic. The town became crowed with suite case business-men. A sibling brother to President Omer el Bashir chartered a plane and came with a bogus company called AYEN-YEN to sign contracts for rehabilitation projects in the town. He dashed out 50 Million Sudanese Pounds to Women Group, an action that brought confusion between the group and authorities. Those who could not afford planes came in Limousines cars. Fictitious companies like SAVANAH for engineering were in town. But what kind of projects was identified?

Since this was a one-man scenario, his dreams were things like new TV station, new football stadium, 20-km tarmac road, new council of ministers building, new hotels, new power lines/generators, new water system and a restaurant of 5,000 sit-in capacity and the list goes on and on. The timeline to accomplish these things was about four months. The budget remains a matter of speculation.

The reason, as one professor put it, if the missionaries did not come to South Sudan, the African tribesmen could have not been able to count beyond ten digits. This is true because Southerners are still confused to count figures. There are people who can not differentiate and comprehend between one million and one billion. So the amount that was to be used for these projects was not determined. For the sake of argument for instance, if 25 crates of money were released in Juba, only 20 crates will be put on the plane. During off-loading in Malakal, 18 crates will reach the Ministry of Finance. Finally, from the Ministry of Finance, 15 crates will be recorded in the Bank. How much money one crate contains is a matter of guessing.

The work of rehabilitation started in the middle of the rainy season. Equipments were ferried in by barge. The foreman was the top government official in the state who knew nothing about engineering. More confusion continued.

The old football stadium was pulled down in anticipation that a new stadium will be imported from China. Time was wasted without seeing the promised one. Instead, the zinc sheets that were ripped out from the old stadium were fixed back and painted. It is worth noting that the money for constructing a new stadium was released twice by GOSS.
Construction of a 20-Km tarmac road is another mockery. The intended roads were enlarged pulling down fences and burying water trenches, thanks, there is no heavy rain this year that could cause flooding in Malakal. People in Malakal are humble and patient. Although their fences and houses were destroyed, they never complained. They thought the government was doing development.

Malakal is in a clay area and surfacing the road with more clay is pointless. Any lay person will know there is no cohesion/friction between the two clay layers. Come the rains and the roads will become slippery. A lot of money was wasted on this project which was not even completed when the celebration commence. People close to these roads experience environmental hazards due to fine dust that gets to their lungs which may course TB in the long run. The old tarmac road was even leveled with clay.

Connection of town water system can raise eye-bows. The old pipes were removed and replace with new plastic pipes, but no water is running in the pipes. The company disagreed with the government, packed and left. Maybe the old area of government quarters has running water. The majority of residents of Malakal town either buy water from donkey-carts or their women have to fetch polluted water directly from the river.

Town power lines were another window dressing show. Concrete slabs were hurriedly fixed down in haphazardly in a zigzag manner or banding; not straight lines like standard connections. One cannot understand what value added in this project. A series of generators not intended for a town like Malakal were bought and probably they will not last long. The cost is estimated to be about seven billion pounds. The caution here is the difference in figures between million and billion.

Building of new hotels can be a joke, ludicrous and mediocre. Horse stable was turned by business-guru in Juba to a five star hotel (South Sudan Hotel, 2) and the officer’s club, now burned to rubble was turned, into a medical clinic. Another building that was initiated by late Othwonh Dak when he was the commissioner of Upper Nile Province about thirty years ago was just remolded to look like a new hotel.

A Presidential castle is one of the world’s wonders in Malakal. The castle was built near the governor’s house in eight weeks thanks to modern technology. But what’s the cost? This was the contract signed by Bashir’s brother. The cost of living in these wonderful hotels is 200-400 US$ per night. Who can afford this price except money coming from government chest?

TV studio was never built although the money was released to a certain Nuer-Business-man in Juba who never even set foot in Malakal. Apart from fencing the council of ministers compound, nothing looks a new building constructed. No restaurant of 5,000 sit-in capacity available.

Then, how were the 15-crates of money used? According to hearsay, bill boards cost 700 million; Iron-sheet fence of a grand theater was constructed for 1 billion pounds. The cost of electric poles was about was about 7 billion pounds and so on.
Since no evaluation was made after the celebration, the rest of expenditure was between kick-backs and wind-falls. Much of the proceeds went for buying homes in Khartoum and Kampala. The lucky ones who found themselves in committees which were family-based selection and got about 20 million pounds per month were able either to rehabilitate their houses or construct new houses in Malakal.

Milking Uncle Sam can be wonderful. Those who were on the 20th row were able to benefit from the bonanza such that they sent their notorious first wives to Kampala leaving behind second wives or even the concubines. It is also being rumored that the Ministry of Finance siphoned back to Juba 7 billion pounds to unknown recipients through Bank of Southern Sudan branch in Malakal.

Furthermore, there are also lessons learned the celebration. The organizers of the celebration were either new in business or otherwise did it deliberately. The usual military standard marching was turned upside down with wildlife in front followed by prisons, police and lastly army. The traditional carnival was substituted by putting Dinka ahead of Shilluk which was immediately contested between these tribes leading of lost of lives and remains as source of conflict today.

From the above gross mistakes, WES can benefit and conduct the celebration in the best way possible by not following what happened in Malakal. They can utilize their money properly in such way that will leave some landmarks of development in the state.

The auther is based in southern Sudan. He can be reached at email: [email protected]