Being ‘born’ the other day, South Sudan as a young nation is expected to be busy crawling towards achieving its full self ‘independence’ in order to shake off its past dark image.
That is not the case! South Sudan’s committee overseeing the fragile transition from civil war has approved almost $185 million to b spend on vehicles, food and home renovations while the country’s peace deal suffers from an alleged lack of funds, according to internal documents seen by The Associated Press.
And as the East African nation emerges from a five-year conflict that killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions, experts warn that the government’s lack of financial transparency will gut the confidence of international donors who have been encouraged to donate to the peace transition fund. Some already like Japan has given $1 million.
Henry Odwar, deputy chairman for the opposition and the committee’s deputy, told the AP he had tried to stop the authorization of payment for home renovations but government representatives approved them anyway.
The November authorizations for cars and food were never even presented to the committee, he said.
Green for Logistic Services, the Dubai-based company contracted to deliver the 1,000 vehicles, confirmed it had agreed to the deal with South Sudan’s chairman of the committee but said the company’s bank later cancelled the offer, citing “security instability in the country,” managing director Dip Sheth told the AP
Government officials and other committee members did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Martin Elia Lomuro, South Sudan’s minister of cabinet affairs and a committee member, last month defended the use of peace funds for renovating homes, telling the AP that “there’s money to spend on accommodation for the people coming to run the country.”
It is “apparent that until now only a very small part of the resources available in South Sudan are being used in support of the peace process,” Germany’s ambassador to South Sudan, Jan Hendrik van Thiel, told the AP.
Local activists called the committee’s spending habits disturbing in a country where the economy has long collapsed and where South Sudan’s government says 1.5 million people are on the brink of starvation.
“Public officials go months without salaries while political figures’ cars are expensively repaired. Furthermore, politicians keep demanding donors to fund peace,” said Edmund Yakani, executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, a local civil society group.