South Sudan delegation in the US : The success

By
Steve Paterno

October 3, 2007 — The trip of the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) delegation to the U.S., headed by Pagan Amum Okiech the SPLM Secretary General, in his capacity as the Senior Presidential Advisor on Political and Diplomatic Affairs was successful compared to the usual blunders some previous delegations created or encountered. Amazingly though, the star among the delegation is not the popular, likeable and vocal, SPLM Secretary General and senior advisor, Pagan Amum, but rather the inconspicuous and the unknown newly appointed GOSS Finance Minister, Kuol Athian Mawien.

To the surprise of many, Minister Kuol Athian Mawien appeared from obscurity and nowhere to head one of the most significant, scrutinized, and already corruption tainted Ministry of Finance. However, looking from close range, one can hardly doubt Minister Mawien’s qualifications, experiences, and sincerity to head the Finance Ministry of GOSS–the ministry, which in his own words he called, “the live blood of South Sudan.” Minister Mawien brought with him a solid educational background, a superb experience, and strong spirit and a sense of duty with great potential to change things for the better.

Born in 1950, Minister Mawien did not waste much time without attending the school. By 1955, he was already enrolled at the Wedwiel Primary School. He then passed on to Awiel Intermediate School from 1960 through 1963. However, due to the Civil War that broke out in Sudan, he was unfortunately not able to continue with the school, where he lost some schooling years. But by 1967, he got an opportunity and continued in Juba Commercial Secondary School. From there, he successfully passed to the University of Khartoum, where by 1975; he obtained B.Sc. degree in economics.

Just out of school, Minister Mawien was appointed inspector of local government, the position that saw his successful promotions to the highest position of Executive Director. In other words, he went virtually through the entire system all the way to the highest position therein. In 1980, he was transferred to Khartoum for Coordination Office. By mid 1980s, he was brought as Executive Director of Awiel Province. He then briefly became the Commissioner of Aweil Province, but by 1996 through 1998, he served as Minister of Agriculture of Northern Behr el-Ghazal State. After that, he became the Executive Director of Behr el-Ghazal Youth Development Agency, the position he held from 1999 through July of 2007, when he was appointed to head the Ministry of Finance. Minister Mawien has extensive experience in both public and private sector. To supplement his career, Minister Mawien completed several professional courses, within Sudan and abroad, in the fields of public administrations, development, management, finance, monitoring and evaluation.

A typical economist, Minister Mawien speaks the language of economics. He is the first ever high ranking government official in GOSS, who goes down on the record, acknowledging that the problems in South Sudan is not money. His overemphasis is on the management, and he is even dared to say that under a normal circumstance, the South will not touch its oil money. He says the South is entrenched in some serious corruption and wonders how people expect development in the South with such a high level of corruption. He pointed out that sixty to eighty percent of South Sudan budget goes to payment of salaries, and that those salaries for the most part are paid to ghost employees–people who are actually not there. He is honest to mention that even in his ministry the payroll showed over 200 employees but he could only identify less than thirty of them working. Worse yet, most of those working are not productive as they do pretty much nothing and their salaries until recently, were never deducted for income tax and pensions. For him, he sees pension funds as away of generating more funds through investment and as away of launching new development projects. Another common practice he discovers is that the other ministries are reluctant or are not fully in compliance with remittance of their funds/collections to the ministry of finance. And that is another corruption. The Minister is equally critical of the GOSS unnecessary spending spree such as the huge dollar amounts being spent on tented hotel rooms in Juba. Leading by example, the Minister moved away from a tented hotel to a regular house, cutting down his cost and expenses from $ 14,000.00 to only $ 3,000.00 per month. He even went as far as saying that corruption went beyond to include nepotism and tribalism; discrimination in employment.

Despite all this pandemic of corruption, the Minister is willing to reform the system. No government Minister has ever been candid and articulate to the public in exposing corruption in GOSS with a view to reforming the system like what he did. He won the admiration of Southern Sudanese in the U.S.A. who have heard him spoke. This admiration is going to turn into his support in reforming his ministry and general resources management in the government. He also has the support of the GOSS President, Salva Kiir, who pledges not only to tackle corruption but reduce it by imprisoning corrupt officials.

Perhaps more significantly, Minister Mawien has the support of the U.S. government, which is able to remove some of the huddles South Sudan encountered as a result of the U.S. sanctions imposed on Khartoum. In 1997, the government of the U.S. imposed a unilateral sanction on Khartoum for its sponsorship of international terrorism. By 2007, with the ongoing genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, the U.S. government tightens this decade long sanction even more. Khartoum is getting the toll of this sanction as it is finally feeling the seriousness of its effects; it is biting hard. Most of their projects are on halt. Imports and exports become a nightmare. Some of Khartoum bank accounts are closed, and the Banks in the Middle East that do business with them are reluctant to conduct business as usual. Transfers of funds are virtually impossible.

Desperate and near bankruptcy, Khartoum is trying to find alternative means including illegal means to avert the effects of this sanction. It illegally taxed the South Sudan share of oil revenues for exempted donor aid imports required for the rebuilding of the war torn South Sudan. Khartoum is also attempting to convert all dollars in its reserves into Euros and other currencies, an attempt that never worked before and will not work again. At any rate, Khartoum is heading into economic disaster, especially with the threats of more sanctions to come.

The South actually was the one that receives the brunt of this sanction more than Khartoum, as it relies on Khartoum for its income. However, that all change, thanks to the U.S. government. In the new arrangements between the U.S. and GOSS, the GOSS will receive its share of oil revenue directly from the buyers, which will be deposited in specified banks and transferred to South Sudan bank. The money, though in U.S. dollars will not again be scrutinized by the U.S. Treasury Department as they will be transferred through South Sudan own Swift Code. The South Sudan will be working with the U.S. bank, the Citibank, to allow for smooth transactions and transfers of funds. Now, South Sudan is able to receive grants without much scrutiny like before. With imports of goods and materials, the South Sudan will be using the port of Mombasa as the entry point. Investors, especially the Americans will be investing in the South Sudan without much huddles they used to encounter before. In return, the U.S. government will get the collaboration of South Sudan not to allow its sanction free privileges to be tempered with by the Khartoum. Given that Khartoum is desperate, it will most likely make some attempts in infiltrating the privileges of the South Sudan to get around this sanction.

In summary, Minister Mawien could not have come at a better time to save the GOSS ministry of finance than now. Now, the challenge is on him to institute his reform policies and see to it that the South Sudan prospers through its limited resources. With much anticipation, good luck to the Minister and people of South Sudan.

*Steve Paterno is a Sudanese residing in the U.S.A and the author of the upcoming book, The Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lohure: A Roman Catholic Priest Turned Rebel, The South Sudan Experience. He can be reached at [email protected]