Allowances for South Sudan police to increase in 2014
July 3, 2013 (BENTIU) – The inspector general of the South Sudan Police Services, Pieng Deng Kuol, told officers, on a four-day visit to Unity state, on Wednesday that their salaries will increase next year despite the country’s economic problems.
Kuol told hundreds of police officers at the state headquarters in Bentiu that the aim of his visit is to visualise the challenges faced by the police across the two-year-old nation.
After shutting down oil production in January 2012 over a transit fee dispute with Sudan, South Sudan has been forced to introduce severe austerity measures to cope with loosing 98% of the government’s income.
South Sudan resumed oil production after a new deal was agreed in March this year but unresolved security issues led Khartoum to recently threatened to close the landlocked nation’s only export route.
The police, like many other institutions, have been forced to reduce some allowances to cope with the country’s reduced financial circumstances.
However, Kuol, said that police salaries will increase by the beginning of January 2014. Most of officers receive less than 400 South Sudanese pound a month.
Food prices have increased dramatically since South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in July 2011 and the oil standoff. Border states, such as Unity state, have been worst affected by the bad relations between Juba and Khartoum, as they had previously relied on imports from Sudan. The border has been closed for trade for most of the last two years.
Sudan Tribune spoke to ten police officers, who all complained of low payment, lack of promotion opportunities and ill-treatment at the hands of senior officers. They accused the former Unity state police commissioner of failing to improve their terms of employment during his eight years in office.
Officers told the inspector general that there is a need to build police hospitals so that their children can be looked after while they are on duty. The Bentiu-based police officers accused the head office of the South Sudan police of denying them the chance to attend training in Juba and abroad.
In a three hour meeting with the inspector general, police officers accused high ranking officials at the interior ministry of failing to meet their contractual obligations and other demands.
Col. James Monday Enoka, a police spokesman in the office of inspector general said Kuol will visit all ten states of South Sudan to inspect the security situation and to assess the national performance of the police force.
Kuol responded to the challenges raised by the officers by acknowledging that South Sudan is a new nation with a lot of shortcomings. He asked for patience from “everyone of us”.
“Some people are laughing at us that we are failed state” Kuol said, referring to a recent report last month United States-based think tank – Fund For Peace – which placed South Sudan fourth on its 2013 list of failed states.
Nut Kuol said the poor ranking should not “traumatise” South Sudanese, pointing out that the young nation was higher than its neighbour Sudan as well as another neighbour the Central African Republic.
“We have done a lot compared than we were with [the] Sudan government”, he said.
“We should not be mistaken that we have done nothing but rather to say we [have seen] improvement in the development of our country.”
The head of the police called for patriotism among police officers while carrying out their assignments and follow South Sudan’s laws and constitution.
Last week the deputy speaker of South Sudan’s parliament said better pay for the army was critical raise the morale and commitment of soldiers.
(ST)
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