Central Equatoria State Legislative Assembly has tasked two committees to study reports presented by the Commissioner of Kajo-Keji County and two state ministers over logging activities in the area.
Three weeks ago, state lawmakers summoned Commissioner Kenyi Erasto Michael, Minister of Finance and Planning, and that of Trade and Industry to answer questions about reports of illegal logging in Kajo-Keji.
According to the report by Commissioner Kenyi Erasto on Wednesday, county authorities there collect revenues from loggers through the county forestry department.
The commissioner said that the revenue collected is meant to provide security to the loggers. Kenyi Erasto claimed that efforts to implement orders by the state government to stop the logging have been disregarded.
This, according to the commissioner, is because some of the loggers are backed by senior officials within the government.
He added that logging business in Kajo-Keji is very complicated and difficult to stop as it involves many hands including institutions such as the State revenue authority, the border customs, the military and the community.
According to James Modi Lomindi, the Chairperson of the Information Committee at the State Legislative Assembly, two committees have been tasked to study the report presented by the three officials and report back within seven days.
“The assembly has referred the reports to the Committee of Peace and Security and the Committee of Physical Infrastructure, Agriculture and Animal Resources for them to scrutinize the reports that had been presented by the Commissioner and the two ministers.”