Hon. Manasseh Magok Rundial, Speaker of South Sudan’s National Legislative Assembly, says that the parliament does not have enough funds for its own operations, nor for projects that members would like to carry out using Constituency Development Funds.

Manasseh blamed “budget indiscipline by the Ministry of Finance” for the shortage of funds.

On Monday, the Speaker of the Assembly addressed the members of parliament at the opening of the first session after a three months leave.

“A serious challenge continues to restrain the main work of law makers in this legislature i.e. oversight of the executive. Since its inauguration, the legislature has been having difficulties in executing its mandate because the Ministry of Finance has not been responsible adequately to our demands as per the approved budget,” he said.  

“The difficult situation of our legislature is epitomized by the following: lack of office space. All honorable members lack offices. Attempts to provide offices have failed as can be witnessed by the condition of the NLA building and in particular the structure northwest of this venue within the same compound.”

“For more than four years the structure has remained in that condition for lack of funds. Usually any parliament will also need a cafeteria for the refreshment of Honorable Members, which our legislature still lacks,” said Manasseh.

But he pointed out that some challenges have been addressed in the main parliament hall, including repairs the microphone system and the light and cooling systems.

However, the parliament has been unable to pay dues to international parliamentary organizations to which it belongs, which include the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Pan-African Parliament and the Forum of Parliaments of Member Countires of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region

“One important thing to underline and emphasize is that membership fees for some of these bodies have not been piad by the Republic of South Sudan. It goes without saying that failure to pay dues in such organizations leave the country diplomatically in a low standing,” he said.

Blame

“If the [Finance] Ministry has been blaming austerity measures for not releasing budgeted funds to spending agencies, austerity measures have now been lifted in the country and the authorities in the Ministry of Finance must respect the law and release in time all the money due to each spending agency including the legislature,” Magok concluded.

He pointed out, “For the last two years CDF [Constituency Development Funds] budgets have not been released,” explaining that this has left some MPs’ projects ‘stranded.’

He noted also lack of cooperation between the Judiciary and Legislature, saying the Judiciary obstructed the work of the parliament’s Public Accounts Committee of the parliament, which wanted to scrutinize the judiciary’s accounts.

The Speaker also revealed that outstanding dues belonging to outgoing MPs stand in the region of 29 million pounds. He is calling for these to be paid. 

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