South Sudan Bank probes premature withdrawal of old pound
March 5, 2007 (JUBA) — A delegation from southern Sudan Bank visited Rumbek yesterday to investigate the burn of old Sudanese pound by the Lakes state authorities. The local official argued that the state had become a center of fake money in the region.
The governor of Southern Sudan Bank Elijah Malok returned to Juba today after 24hour visit to the capital of Lakes state to investigate the systematic burning of the old Sudanese pound by the local authorities. Reports from Juba said the burned were confiscated from the elders and the small business.
The governor Daniel Awet Akot banned the circulation of the old Sudanese pound, the basic money in the region during 21 years of war, on 22 February. He justified his decision by the need to prevent dealers from bringing fake pound banknote and circulate it in the area. The local officials told the bank governor that the old Sudanese pound is being exploited by unknown people who are brining it to Rumbek from unknown sources.
The governor was criticized because he allowed the confiscation of the money of elders and youth who doing a small-scale business in the town. The police confiscated and burned systematically the old pound without any record or investigation. So, many poor people lost all what they have without any possibility to prove it.
Akot authorized only the Sudanese Dinar and the new Sudanese Pound.
The old pound substitution started on 9 January and gradually the new Sudanese pound will be the sole legal tender in the Sudan on the first day of the next month of July.
According to the Bank of Sudan Act, “The National Committee for the replacement of currency in the Sudan, the Southern Sudan Committee for the replacement of the currency […] shall undertake the implementation and follow up of the process of introducing the new currency and withdrawal of the old currency in coordination with the concerned government organs.”
Obviously the Lakes official did not respect this rule.
During Naivasha peace talks, the SPLM rejected to maintain the dinar because it was seen as part of an attempt to Islamize the whole Sudan by the National Congress Party government which cancelled the pound and imposed the dinar in 1992.
(ST)