Jonglei government borrows 7.8 million for MPs’ terminal benefits

November 24, 2015 (BOR) – The government of South Sudan’s Jonglei state has acquired a loan amounting to SSP 7.8 million from the country’s central administration to pay terminal benefits for lawmakers who served in the state assembly from 2005 to 2010.

The state had not yet paid annual and post-services benefits for its first MPs as mandated by provisions of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

The current Jonglei administration came up with a formula to settle it once and for all, despite the costs involved so that it ceases to become a problem in the state.

“Three months ago, we borrowed 7.8 million South Sudanese Pounds from the national ministry of finance to pay members of the first assembly. This loan is being repaid by installment of slightly over 844,000 South Sudanese pounds monthly and will continue until May 2016”, the caretaker governor of Jonglei state, John Kong said Tuesday.

“These added responsibilities become part of the general economic determination affecting Jonglei state today,” he added.

Had the government acquired this loan last year, it would have obtained SSP5 million.

The state assembly speaker, Peter Deng Aguer, said it was important to resolve this matter before the government gets decentralised following creation of 28 new states.

“The governor’s intervention into the solution to pay such an amount to the first MPs will not could in turn create anxiety between legislature and executive, and since further decentralization is soon going to be implemented, there shall be no any other body to pay it”, said Deng.

It is not clear how much funds Jonglei’s treasury has given that the state has operated without a clear budget since July this year.

The government said it recovered SSP4 million from different ministries that had allegedly been diverted. It was paid through communities since November last year.

“In 2014, the council of ministers decided to be more critical on the payment of salaries. At all times, I established a committee to supervise the payment of civil servants in the state capital. This committee manages to save good amount of money over the last eleven months. As I speak before you today, this unpaid money recovered stands at 4 million South Sudanese Pounds in cash”, stressed the governor.

“This money used to go to individual pockets since the war broke out in December 2013. But because this leadership is vigilant and committed to transparency, we have saved this much which we can use for the benefit of the government and people of Jonglei state”, he added.

(ST)