The new managing director of South Sudan’s state-run oil company Nilepet is secretly giving tens of thousands of dollars to friends and political allies on a regular basis, according to copies of internal Nilepet documents obtained by Radio Tamazuj.
President Salva Kiir removed the previous Nilepet director in May amid corruption charges and replaced him with Joseph Cleto Deng, who was Kiir’s office manager in the SPLM and a native of his home state. In his first months in office, Cleto Deng has given tens of thousands of dollars to his friends and political allies in the form of either “exchange” or “assistance”.
For example, Cleto gave $12,000 to Salva Kiir’s cousin Thiik Thiik Mayardit, and $10,000 to Sultan Marko Monydeng Akook, a chief from Salva Kiir’s home area of Akon North Payam.
Nilepet is one of several institutions and ministries with the power to issue a ‘letter of credit’ to a company or individual to access dollars from the central bank at a preferential rate. The ostensible purpose of this ‘letter of credit’ system is to make dollars available to importers so that they can bring goods such as fuel and petrol to South Sudan to be sold at affordable prices.
In practice, however, Nilepet has also been issuing dollars to private individuals for private purposes, especially to individuals with political connections or influential relatives. As managing director of Nilepet, Cleto has issued orders to give dollars to these individuals at the government’s preferential exchange rate – which is less than four times the street rate.
Other times he has simply given the money away as “assistance,” with no commitment to make repayment.
For example, on 3 July 2015, Cleto ordered his finance department to give $5,000 to SPLM secretariat official Victor Bol Yol “as exchange” – in other words, selling the dollars to him at the preferential government rate.
In another instance, Chief Marko Monydeng Akook, an executive chief from Akon North Payam in Warrap State, requested dollars from Cleto as “assistance,” according to a letter dated 5 June. Annotations on the letter indicate that he was given $10,000.
Hon. Samuel Duwar Deng, chairman of the Defense, Security and Public Order Committee in the National Assembly, wrote a letter to the Nilepet managing director on 16 June asking for $5,000 at the preferential exchange rate. His request was granted. He claimed that he would be using the dollars to get medical treatment for his father-in-law in Cairo.
Agasio Akol Tong, chairman of the civil aviation authority and a political associate of Salva Kiir also hailing from Warrap State, requested $50,000 from the Nilepet managing director as “humanitarian financial assistance.” Nilepet approved the issuance of $40,000 to him at the preferential exchange rate.
Thiik Thiik Mayardit from Warrap State wrote to the Nilepet boss on 6 July saying he needed money for medical treatment in Nairobi.
“Please pay Thiik Thiik only 12,000 USD as an assistance,” reads a written order on the same document addressed to the Nilepet Accounts and Finance department from the Nilepet boss.
Col. John Mourwel Majak, an advisor for the National Security Service (NSS), was given $5,000 “as exchange,” according to another document. In his letter requesting for these funds he explained to the Nilepet boss that he wanted to go to Nairobi for medical treatment “and the requested amount will cater for my travel costs, medical bills, accommodation, feeding.”
Several other Nilepet documents show that the state oil company also gave money to organizations for social or political purposes unrelated to the mandate of the company. For example, Nilepet authorized $38,000 “as exchange” for the General Union of Jieng [Dinka] Students in Universities and High Institutions in Sudan.
Akuechbeny Bol, Secretary of Finance of the Students’ Union and Mabior Atem, Head of Delegation, wrote in a letter to Cleto Deng that the money would be used “to complete the process of the graduates’ certificates and their tickets expenses of coming back home from Khartoum.”
Another document shows that Nilepet authorized an 80,400 SSP payment to a group calling itself the “Nuer Youth for Peace & Reconciliation Forum,” ostensibly to hold activities in honour of Independence Day. The group was headed by James Gatwech Kun, the group’s chairman.
Charles Obaj Adwok, a ‘civil society’ leader whom Radio Tamazuj earlier revealed was paid at least $500 by the government at peace talks last year, secured approval from Nilepet for a 30,000 SSP payment for “mobilization” efforts in July.
Joseph Lual Achuil, another political associate and a former minister, was given $5,000 “for school fees.”
In another instance, Cleto Deng ordered his finance department to pay a certain Machol Awan the amount of “3,000 USD from the management fee and 3000 SSP as an assistance.” This money was given to him without explanation of the purpose, according to a document on headed paper from the “Office of the Managing Director”, dated 7 July 2015.
Anyone with additional information or documents about corruption in South Sudan is encouraged to contact Radio Tamazuj.
See also:
Son of central bank governor involved in currency trading in Juba (7 July)
Special investigation: President Kiir linked to multi-million dollar roads contracts (16 June)