New restrictions imposed on NGOs working in the southern Sudan

NAIROBI, May 28, 2004 (IRIN) — Aid efforts in southern Sudan are being hampered by restrictions on work permits and ad hoc taxes imposed by the emerging government and local authorities, according to humanitarian sources.

NGOs in southern Sudan were being asked to pay a growing number of taxes or “fees”, humanitarian sources told IRIN. Such tariffs included off-loading fees at airports; airport taxes (in addition to landing fees paid by aviation companies); a 10-percent tax on staff salaries; road licence fees; work permit fees; fees for boreholes in an NGO compound; three-month visas for foreign staff; and separate taxes for the use of email, short-range radios, long-range radios and satellite phones.

Whereas some of the taxes have been established for some time, others are being introduced on an ad hoc basis. One aid worker said that last week the NGO he was working for had been asked to pay 2,500 Kenyan shillings (US $31) in tax for latrines in its compound. On top of this, the NGO allowed aid workers to stay in the compound on a strict cost-sharing basis, for which it had to pay a 10-percent tax.

Aid workers say they are finding it increasingly difficult to explain the growing expenses to donors, who want to know exactly what their money is being spent on. “Our budget is from individual church-backed donors, who want to see all of the money going to the beneficiaries,” said Jürgen Prieske, the regional representative of Diakonie Emergency Aid.

Due to disasters and emergencies in other parts of the world, for the last two years it had become difficult for NGOs like Diakonie to raise the necessary funds for Sudan, he added.

Ahead of a peace agreement with the Sudanese government, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is faced with the daunting task of transforming itself from a fragmented rebel movement which has been fighting a war for 38 years since independence, into a legitimised government.

A source from one aid agency told IRIN it was now paying 3 percent of its total budget to the Sudanese authorities in taxes and fees. “It makes it easier to pay taxes if you see what the money is being spent on,” he commented.

A second contentious issue for aid workers in southern Sudan is that of work permits. Since 2003, the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SRRC), the SPLM/A’s humanitarian wing, has introduced a new system of permits for all expatriates in an effort to create jobs for Sudanese.

A letter sent to an NGO by Aloisio Emor Ojetuk, the chairman of the Work Permit Panel, states that expatriate cooks, drivers, mechanics, logisticians, camp managers, administrators and field coordinators, who all occupied “support” positions, would be routinely denied work permits and asked to leave Sudan immediately.

Whereas some of the skills necessary to undertake these jobs are available in southern Sudan, others are impossible to find, say aid workers. Making matters worse, many of those who have been denied permits were also directly involved in training local Sudanese.

Ian Sinkinson of Tearfund told IRIN that two programme managers, four logisticians, and one vehicle technician had all been refused work permits, and had been given until 30 June to leave Sudan. “We are trying to recruit Sudanese logisticians to work alongside our staff and then take over. But there isn’t enough time to train up the local people,” he said.

Diakonie staff were receiving on-the-job training, especially in village health services, but also in skills such as carpentry, metalwork and masonry, which were essential to the smooth running of the primary health care programme, Prieske told IRIN. If the expatriate staff were not there to train them, then the Sudanese would also have to be let go, he said.

The Diakonie health-care programme in Rumbek and Cheibet counties had already trained several hundred Sudanese village health workers, while an exit strategy had been agreed on with the SPLM health secretariat after three years, he said. “Not only in Sudan but worldwide it is our basic policy to integrate, and hand over programmes as soon as possible to the local structures.”

Elijah Malok, the head of the SRRC, told IRIN that there was no question of southern Sudanese lacking the necessary skills to fill in for the expatriates no longer being allowed to work in Sudan. “That is a lie. Let them come and prove it. They do not want to give jobs to the southerners,” he said.

But others say the SRRC is overestimating the levels of education in southern Sudan. “The skills and education are simply not available,” commented one source. “They hugely overestimate their own skills.”

Meanwhile, humanitarian workers agree that the current problems are affecting both the timeliness and quality of aid being offered to southern Sudanese. “Humanitarian assistance is for the people of Sudan. We expect the de facto authorities to help us to help their own people,” commented one Western donor.