South Sudan hires British firm to probe corruption

October 4, 2007 (JUBA, Sudan) — South Sudan has signed up a British accounting firm to help it conduct its first ever audit, to shed light on possible corruption in the semi-autonomous region formed after a 2005 north-south peace deal.

The audit will investigate how $500 million of reserve money was spent without parliamentary approval in 2006, south Sudan’s Auditor General Barnabas Majok told Reuters. The government’s total budget for that year was $1.4 billion, he said.

“We will work with (accounting firm) PKF in coordination with the national audit chambers in the UK,” Majok said on Wednesday. “They will provide technical support for three years for about $9 million.”

A June investigation by the government’s Anti-Corruption Commission found “dramatic over-expenditure,” Majok said.

“The Ministry of Finance was operating without procedures,” said Majok. “There were incidences of some ministries contracting more than was in their budget.”

The Anti-Corruption Commission has been unable to act on the charges because a law has not been passed to govern it, its head Pauline Riak said.

“(The audit) will be vital. We will be told if there are fiscal problems here or there,” she said. “We’re actually waiting to be able to move in a systematic way.”

South Sudan pumps about 500,000 barrels per day of crude, which accounts for about 95 percent of its revenue.

(Reuters)