Funds for the 1000 tractors recently imported at the initiative of President Salva Kiir are not found in the government budget for the current fiscal year. Officials have thus far given contradictory statements about the source of funding and mode of payment for the tractors.
Last Thursday the Minister of Agriculture said at a launch event that the 1000 tractors would be distributed by the Agriculture Ministry to farmers unions to boost food production in the country.
However, according to the Appropriations Act 2014/2015, the Ministry of Agriculture has a capital expenditures budget this year of 0, and could not therefore have procured the tractors using its own budgeted funds. Likewise, the Agricultural Bank has a capital budget of 0 for the current fiscal year.
The only government institution that appears to have budgeted for the purchase of tractors this year is the Interior Ministry, which included funds for two tractors apparently for prisons agriculture projects, according to the 2014/2015 Approved Budget Book.
No other allocations for tractors are mentioned in this budget document, which was produced by the Finance Ministry. In the previous fiscal year, the Agriculture Bank reported spending only 3.2 million SSP on capital expenses including an unspecified number of tractors, water pumps and spare parts.
Officials have given contradictory information about the source of the funds. State-controlled SSTV reported the tractors were a ‘donation’ of the president – implying a private source of funding – while the Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs said the SPLA pension funds were used for the purchase.
“The Ministry of Finance will refund this money to the pension fund of SPLA,” Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk said at the launch event on Thursday.
South Sudan’s Pension Funds Act of 2012 expressly bans the use of government pension funds to purchase motor vehicles as investments. Additionally, the Appropriations Act 2014/2015 restricts the use of the Pension Account during the current year, explaining that it “shall only be for purposes of provision of post service benefits or other retirement entitlements of former Government employees.”
Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Friday was unclear about whether the expenditure was a private ‘donation’ by the president or an expenditure of the Office of the President, which is part of the government. “The president is the one who did this. He made the donation to South Sudan. That is the president – the president’s office,” he said.
Related coverage:
Khartoum company linked to South Sudan tractor deal (17 April)