Jonglei state official advices civil servants to act within scope

December 29, 2015 (BOR) – The newly-appointed secretary general of South Sudan’s Jonglei state, Mawut Achiek Guarak has advised director generals and the assembly clerks serving in various state institutions to work within the limit of their jurisdictions.

“After we learned yesterday that the former 10 states of South Sudan had been abolished by a republican degree, and now that the senior civil servants, the secretary generals are running affairs, I called all the director generals and the clerk of the assembly to brief them on this and to ensure to them that the government must work as normal, only that the DGs [Director Generals] could not initiate policies or direct things that they could not otherwise do without the approval of the top leadership,” said Guarak.

He said a number of ex-ministers who left behind personnel things in their former offices, called him immediately after a republican decree was announced on SSTV Monday.

“Our former ministers are very cooperative, yesterday when the degree was read on the SSTV, a lot of them called me and told me whether there was something left in their offices and they pledged that they will never visited their offices again,” added Guarak.

According to the official, Jonglei state, now divided into Western Bieh state under James Kok Ruai, Eastern Bieh state under Peter Bol Kong, Jonglei state under Philip Aguer Panyang, and Boma state under Baba Medan Konyi, will run under the old system until complete disintegration modalities are achieved.

A number of assets with undisclosed values were registered in Bor for sharing with the new states, but how and when the asset sharing would take place still remains unclear.

Manpower will also be shared among the new states in Jonglei. The state work force budget for in 2014/15 budget caters for 5,255 staff in ministry headquarters in Bor.

After taking an oath of their offices on Tuesday, the four governors of the newly created states will first come to Bor, where they will have joint discussions on common issues.

Citizens and residents in Bor are already being mobilised to receive the new governors on a day yet to be announced by the office of the new Jonglei state secretary general.

“The division of the Jonglei into four states doesn’t affect the people and the government of Jonglei in any way. It is only disintegration of the system if you are a DG here and you are moved to your new state, you will continue to be a DG [Director General] in your ministry or the new ministry in which you will be assigned,” stressed Guarak.

“We are citizens of this great country and whatever administrative changes that comes in, we must embrace it because it is the people that asked for it and the president of the Republic did it in favour of the people, there is no reason of fear or anything,” he added.

(ST)