Amer Ateny, the Speaker of the Jonglei State Legislative Assembly, said they are not playing an oversight role effectively to ensure resources are prudently used by the executive.
The constitution gives the legislative assembly powers to exercise legislative functions, oversee the executive, and authorize the allocation of resources and revenue.
Jonglei State is governed by a transitional government formed under the 2018 peace agreement. The state government comprises different parties.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Friday from Bor town, Speaker Amer said: “The executive now sits as an oversight, giving directives and orders.”
She explained that although the constitution gives the assembly rights as an oversight body, the lawmakers are sidelined. Amer accused the state governor, Denay Jock Chagor, of ignoring the legislative assembly.
“For example, the State Council of Ministers ordered that salaries for all the constitutional-post holders be cut by 50 % without our consent. We rejected the idea, but they continued with their decision, thinking that they were the final decision-makers,” she said.
“As you might be aware, our problem in Jonglei state is that of constitutional post holders not being paid for months, and even the counties. At the Governor’s Forum, I raised the concern, which prompted our governor to pay lawmakers salary arrears for October, leaving behind salary arrears for July, August, and September,” she said.
She added,” We do not know whether or not these months will be cleared. Jonglei State is in crisis. There are traders and hotel owners demanding money from the state. Our problem in Jonglei is that the state governor refuses to have locally generated taxes included in the budget. He said that taxes are meant only for security operations. So this is where we disagreed because the budget for security should not be all the taxes and should have also been approved by the parliament.”
Working relationship
The state assembly speaker also accused the state executive of deliberately eroding the working relationship with the state legislative assembly to evade oversight.
“There is no cooperation between the executive and the legislature. The executive arm now sits as an oversight,” Amer said. As a speaker, lawmakers are not on good terms with me because I convinced them to have the parliament closed for recess, thinking that the governor and I would solve the lawmakers’ concerns on the issue of salaries and that of a minister who defied his impeachment. However, our governor ignored everything.”
Speaker Amer called for dialogue between the rival arms of the state government. She also urged the presidency to intervene.
“I am coming out loud for the presidency to take note of the concerns. Because if the point is that the budget is not enough for our state, then a solution should be found. It is not making sense for us to have conflict over the issue of salaries every day,” she said.
Governor Denay could not immediately be reached for comment.
For his part, John Samuel Manyuon, the state information minister, admitted that the lawmakers were not paid salaries for several months, saying the government has no money.
“The assembly has been paid one month’s salary with the full amount of 100% as they had requested because they rejected the council of ministers austerity measures to cut salaries by 50%. I am sure the rest of the payment will be cleared soon,” he said.
Ter Manyang, Executive Director of the civil society Center for Peace and Advocacy (CPA) and chair of the Civil Society Coalition on Defense of Civic Space (CSCDCS), said the political situation in Jonglei state is worrying and could compromise the 2018 peace agreement.
The activist called for a conference for the parties to the peace agreement in Jonglei State to iron out their differences.