South Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture is asking for help from foreign organizations to move 1,000 tractors brought by President Salva Kiir to Juba without funding from the parliament to support the maintenance or distribution of the tractors.
The tractors are still sitting in Juba in spite of the approaching cultivation season.
Speaking in Juba yesterday during the release of the national food security report, Agriculture Minister Beda Machar asked international ‘development partners’ to step in and assist with distribution.
“I appeal to you all the development partners to work with me and my team, we need to move these tractors to the states. Should there be any support that you can also render because the same people whom you are supporting and we are supporting in the rural areas are the same people we are also supporting with our programs.”
Beda added, “These tractors will make our work very easy… it will keep our population working.”
President Kiir’s aides negotiated the terms of procurement of the tractors from Cardinal company, a north Sudanese firm implicated in a vehicle procurement deal in South Sudan that led to the removal and house arrest of a former finance minister.
Kiir has not disclosed the amount paid to Cardinal company for the 1,000 tractors nor explained why normal finance ministry procurement procedures were bypassed.
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