The commissioner of the revenue authority in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, Michael Akol Wek, resigned from office, protesting micromanagement by the state minister of finance, Andrew Lual Buola.
In an interview with Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday, Akol said he resigned after months of frustration and interference by the state finance minister who usurped all duties.
“Yes, I have resigned. I printed the resignation letter on my official headed paper, stamped it, and handed it over to the office on Monday, to my deputy Hon. Garang Deng, because I have not been given time to exercise my constitutional powers as stipulated in the Revenue Authority Act 2010 amended 2017,” Akol explained. “It came as a result of interference made by Hon. Minister of finance, Andrew Lual Buola, the cousin to the state governor who has controlled all my responsibilities and I was idle there.”
He accused the finance minister of taking the advantage of being a cousin to Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Governor, Tong Akeen Ngor, and blamed the governor for not resolving the problem.
Finance minister, Andrew Lual Buola, denied that he commandeered the role of the state revenue authority commissioner.
“I didn’t interfere in his duties because his work is to collect money and he has no right to use any money, he holds a collection agency, not a spending agency. I told him to write me a request if he needs money but he doesn’t want that. He wants to take the money directly from the generating sources as he wishes and that is not right,’’ Minister Lual explained.
For his part, Abraham Wol Kom, the state minister of information and communication, said there was no official resignation made by the revenue authority commissioner. He however acknowledged that they received a plain letter without an official stamp.
“We have also heard about the ongoing resignation but it is not yet authenticated by the state government. So far, I cannot make any statement because it is not yet recognized by the state government,’’ Wol said.