Jonglei State initiates computerised financial controls
July 8, 2011 (BOR) – The state government of Jonglei has adopted a new computerised system for financial control starting from July, the state minister of finance revealed on Thursday.
The state minister of finance, Aquila Mam told Sudan Tribune on Thursday July 7 at his office in Bor that the state government has spent about US$376,000 to bring in computers and related software from Canada through the Join Access Kilobit (J.A.K) company earlier this year.
JAK Technologies is a Canadian based company formed and registered in 2004, dealing in computer networking and software developing technologies, database for financial records and human resources management in the Canadian city of Edmonton.
Mam said the computerised system will be used in the ministry of physical infrastructure to register all owners of land in a database to avoid malpractice. In the ministry of finance it will be used to control tax collection and to monitor state employees salaries and daily activities.
The finance minister stressed that the new technology will improve tax collection in the state by eliminating the middle men and streamlining reporting and payment practices.
“People will never touch cash. The clients will be paying at the bank and only come with the receipts to the ministry for registration”, Mam explained.
According to the minister, the state is expecting to generate about 28 million Sudanese Pounds in tax revenues from the computerised system compared with 5 million Sudanese Pounds collections in the past.
Due to suspicions about the presence of “ghost names” – unrecognised names that exist on pay rolls – and double-job dealing in the ministries, the government has decided to give computerised IDs to all the state employees by registering them with names, place of work, salary grades, their gross salaries, finger prints and photos in the database.
The manager of JAK and project initiator, Joseph Majur Akoi told Sudan Tribune that he is working hard to fulfill the requests of Jonglei state saying the system is now ready for use despite lack of computers in the state.
According to Majur the system is fully installed in the finance ministry and Pakuau where collection of taxes will be monitored.
He said he has assigned numbers and special IDs to Bor traders and shop owners in Bor for easy identification. Majur said the computer itself will reveal which traders have not paid their invoices and it will be their job to remind them to turn to settle their payments.
His office has already registered about 392 businessmen in Marol market.
Bor trader, Emam Ibrahim, a trader from Ethiopia said he is happy with the new system. He added that dealing with policemen and other tax collectors in the past had not been a good experience.
Another Trader, John Dut Ayii Dut also appreciated the system and said the effectiveness of the system will depend on the how honest the traders are. Dut accused the government police of failing to protect their shops at night from thieves.
Jonglei budget to be implemented starting from July
The state finance minister, Aquila Mam said the state will implement the long awaited new budget that was passed by the state assembly in the first week of July.
According to the minister of the new state budget of 194 million Sudanese Pounds, 74 percent goes on salaries, 14 percent on operating costs and only 12 percent on development projects.
He called up on the citizens of South Sudan to expand the private sector to create jobs for themselves saying the government was not able to employ everybody.
(ST)