South Sudan development requires salaries reduction

By Charles B. Kisanga

April 28, 2007 — Last week it was no surprise to many that a spokesman for Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) made an announcement that the GoSS got its budget figures for 2007 very wrong and they were having very serious difficulty with regards to money flow and they might have to brow heavily to seal the gap. I had been expecting such a statement for a very long time now and it was even a surprise to me (but not for so long) when they claimed in January 2007, that they did not use their entire budget of 2006. How could they have not used it while there was a big spending spree everywhere? But I was confident of my analyses that GoSS is spending more than it can ever earn and soon or later the Government will cry we have no money any more. Hence the delayed announcement came just the way I had been expecting for over seven months. But they way it came even surprised many because even the said left over from last year a staggering $498 million had disappeared in thin air in just three months!

Recently I was in East Africa on a fact finding mission which included close discussions and scrutiny on situation in Southern Sudan. Some of the things I found out are very disturbing indeed. It is well known in East Africa that if you want to make money then go to South Sudan. Corruption is so rampant that any dodgy company will get away siphoning millions of dollars of South Sudanese money. Then there is the information that Southern Sudan now pays one of the highest salaries in Africa. I learned with dismay how the higher salaries are even paid. For example a police or army private in supposed to earn a salary of about $350 a month. Also mere car drivers or messengers or clerks for the GoSS go with the same salaries of around $350 a month. On the other hand hand ministers of GoSS had inflated their salaries of course to about $5000 mark then plus allowances and travel allowances (flying officials as they are known locally in Juba) could mean that, as a minister in GoSS you can end up pocketing $10,000 a month in one of the poorest places in the world. Of course it is not bad to earn very high salaries which make a few people very happy and rich except that you exclude the majority of the population and there are no more money left for services.

Now take the example of East Africa countries like Uganda, and Kenya. Police or army private can earn only an average of around $90 a month. Well one time I myself employed a driver in Nairobi and I was only paying him just 6000 Kenyan shillings a month or roughly about $80; according to the salary standard of that country. Well these countries have well established economies and they could even pay higher salaries like in South Sudan if they wished do, shouldn’t they?

Now in January 2005, when I was in Rumbek I came across the recommendations of JAM (Joint
Assessment Mission); a body which included Western European experts who studied the pre-war and after war situation of Southern Sudan and they made recommendations for how to rebuild the country from scrap. Their recommendations for salary levels included setting a minimum salary of about $50 for army or police private and the highest salaries in the Southern Sudan not to go above $1500 a month. However it seems their recommendations were disregarded. But as I mathematician if I take the GoSS budget and compare it to salary commitments in Southern Sudan it will seem astronomical. Let us take an average salary of a group and multiply it with the assumed number of workers of South Sudan then the money will add more nearer to the $1 billion we could have as budget. For example say the SPLA army of South Sudan is at a figure of 50,000 and they have an average salary of $500 a month then we end up with 50,000x500x12=300 million dollars year. This is just a mere estimate and the average salary depends on considering that the private earns $350 a month and the senior commander may be earning up to $5000 a month. This is outside all the army requirements such training, uniforms, dry ratios, accommodations, equipment, ammunition, trucks, fuel. Of course one interesting story is that we do not know exactly how many soldiers we have in South Sudan today. It is only my conservative estimates putting the number around 50,000. But when I was in Rumbek in February 2005, SPLM leadership and SPLA generals as well were talking of trying to equal Khartoum in armed forces saying that they will have a force of 400,000 men in uniform to even that of Northern Sudan National Congress Army…

I would assume the assertion of having an Army of 400,000 was mere rhetoric or ignorance rather than reality. Realistically I myself would have recommended a force of 20,000 or less and then demobilize much of liberation fighter force as quickly as possibly to allow them to be employed as workers to help rebuild schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, housings, agricultural schemes etc. What do you do when you have the whole labour force in the Army? You need to free that labour force to engage them in constructional and development. Yes we can have a large army but then they must be the employed in civil servants roles and who can be used as army conscripts, a tactic used by Israel as well as France. Even Britain uses army reserves called the Territorial Army but these are regular workers who if it becomes necessary can be pulled from their jobs to take up army roles when the nation is at threat or when the Army is short of men to carry out its combat operations and roles.

In the case of civil servants same salaries levels apply and if one combines the salaries of civil servants with that of the SPLA then we are soon running out of money. For example let us take 50,000 state workers with an average salary of a $500 month and you are already spending $300 million on salaries. Well I think the sates alone employ around 100,000 already because event he recommendations of GoSS to limit each state work force to 5000 did not materialise and most Southern states continue to employ roughly 10,000 workers.

Hence it is no surprise that Sothern Sudan government says it is spending 70%, in fact 80 % of its budget on salaries. There is no economy in the world that can sustain such higher salary levels and spending when it comes even to trying to develop from scratch. Hence it seems now the Government of Southern Sudan is going to go the same path of what happened to many post-colonial African countries via heavy borrowing and spending to try to finance developmental projects and salaries even though most of those money ended up in pockets of corrupt individuals. The result is always catastrophic to the economy because you are left with big debts because through corruption and lack of resources the country will never be able to afford to repay the loans resulting still in more borrowing to cover interest charges and the people and the country become more and more poor.

Hence for a long time now I’m have been saying people South Sudan cannot sustain the current levels of money flow and the whole thing will collapse soon or later. Inflation will be skyrocketing and there will be zero money spent on services and the whole thing will collapse under its own weight. It is no surprise that the $498 million left over from last year (2006) when some GoSS ministries failed to spend their allocated budgets vanished very quickly before people knew it. All these are happening when thousands of posts remain unfilled, especially in the construction industries and civil servants positions like teachers, doctors and nurses. Another stigma is that SPLM cannot even fulfil its obligation of putting thousands of Southern workers in the GoNU ministries to the tune of 20% of the work force. I was told because salaries are higher in the Southern Sudan than in the North practical nobody wants to be a Director or Deputy Director in the North when you can of course earn twice or more in the Southern Sudan than in the North. Practically salaries should have been less in the South than in the North because currently we are just a subset of the whole Government of the Sudan. Also the said committee for integration of Southern workforce in GoNU had done little work so far and it has never really taken off the ground yet.

There are people who always like to attack my well researched analyses of the situation of our government and country without due consideration to the fact that I have the experience to say what I say because I have run big projects before like St. Augustine programme in Khartoum (a success story then) and lately in UK where I have worked for some of the big name in the telecommunication Industry. At one time I worked for Lucent Technologies an organisation which employed then 100,000 people. At Lucent Technologies I was also manager of Wireless Advanced Technology Research Laboratory in Swindon and I was responsible for handling then a budget of $1million a year for laboratory upkeep. Being manager of an Advanced Wireless technology laboratory also put me in collaboration with UK and US Government organisations such as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of USA, the UK Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of the Communications (OFCOM) and International Institute of Telecommunications (ITU). Yet when it comes to expertise to help as consultants some South Sudan leaders have gone to hire Indians, Chinese and other foreigners to work for reconstruction of our country rather then working with Southern Sudan technocrats and experts. Of cause all these comes to one thing, tribalism which make people ignore experts from other tribes and if there are none from your tribe then you will rather work with Indian saboteurs rather than fellow South Sudanese from other tribes.

The only answer to the problem of lack of cash in Southern Sudan is for GoSS to go back to the level of salaries which were recommended by JAM so that the little money we have can reach everybody. Why should privileged select few earn thousands of dollars while the majority will heave nothing and also there will be nothing left for the development when corruption takes last pennies on top of the higher salaries? Yes we commend Lt General Salva Kiir for launching a war on corruption and doing his level best but more needs to be done because the whole structure of the new GoSS favours corruption. Competent people and patriotic intellectuals and technocrats need to be given roles to affect change because such people have the zeal and passion needed to pull the country together rather than relying on people who are only interested in filling up their stomachs rather than really having the spirit to sacrifice for the country. How can you be eating $10,000 a month in inflated salaries while the majority of South Sudanese have nothing to eat? Why would you not accept a salary of $1500 a month if you are really somebody who wants to rebuild your country and provide services for the whole population? If salaries were lower then we can say, indeed those who got positions in GoSS via nepotism and tribalism and not open competition are there to sacrifice but what is happening now is that because some people are there to earn more money than they would even earn in Western Europe many people are not there not to sacrifice but to get rich while those of us who are banned from contributing in the Southern Sudan via tribalism and nepotism are the ones sacrificing because out of our mere salaries of less than $3, 000 month in the West we are the ones able to help those who do not get GoSS fat salaries and those who have not seen any dividend from the CPA. Today I still send money to the displaced and refugees relatives either in Khartoum or Uganda or those who have nothing in Southern Sudan. Recently hundreds of South Sudanese returnees taken form Libya to Khartoum had been stranded with no food or help and it is people like me in exile who are the ones sending help to keep those people alive rather than GoSS.

Hence borrowing to pay salaries and pretend to pay for development projects in Southern Sudan is not the answer to corruption and mismanagement of resources in Southern Sudan. It needs more pragmatic approaches and restructuring and change of heart and attitudes to what constitutes nationalism and patriotism for one’s country. Patriotism and nationalism allows people to live modestly and spend the money on economic development and availing equal opportunities to all; which can mean more employed on lesser salaries allowing more use of our great manpower, skills and resources.

* Eng. Kisanga is former SPLM NLC member and chairman of Western Equatoria Azande Community World-Wide Organisation. He is currently living and working in exile in the UK and he can be reached on [email protected].