The former presidential affairs minister, Mayiik Ayii Deng should be held accountable if found guilty of mismanaging the country’s road project, a lawyer said.

“If public resources, tax payer money and public projects are being mismanaged or single sourced by brokers or cartels as it is the feeling we are having with the roads and main projects to be undertaken by government, then people should be held accountable,” Phillip Anyang Ngong told Radio Tamazuj on Friday.

On Tuesday last week, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir sacked Mayiik and replaced him with former foreign minister Nhial Deng Nhial.

The president revealed that he fired Mayiik, who was in charge of the construction of the Juba-Bahr el Ghazal road, over the improper manner in which the road is being constructed.

A section of the road was washed away by the rains recently.

The South Sudanese lawyer also wondered how the minister for presidential affairs was involved in a road project meant to be under Ministry of Roads and Bridges.

He said South Sudan Anti-Corruption Commission and the Ministry of Justice should investigate the matter. “If the minister has done something outside the law, he should be held accountable,” Anyang stressed.

The 394 km highway is paid with crude oil. The contract was signed by the government with Shangdong Hi-Speed Ltd, a Chinese company.